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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 



PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 



PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 



FOR THE USE OF 



MECHANICS' INSTITUTIONS. 



BY 

■ 

Sir G. S. MACKENZIE, Bart. 
F.R.SS, L. &E. 



SECOND ENGLISH EDITION. 



SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., LONDON : 
MACLACHLAN, STEWART, & CO. EDINBURGH. 



MI>CCCXL. 






$ 



FRINTKI' BY N ' I I I, .V < <«.. OLD IISHM.VHKH. 
, II SIIURCH, 



MEMBERS OF THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTION 
OF INVERNESS. 

The following general observations on the Princi- 
ples of Education (as you are aware), I had intend- 
ed, but for circumstances that occurred to render it 
inconvenient, to have publicly delivered at Inverness 
last spring, in the form of Lectures ; in the hope that 
some excitement to farther inquiry into a most im- 
portant subject might be the result, as well as a de- 
sire to promote lectures on various branches of know- 
ledge. Having been encouraged to believe that, if 
printed in a cheap form, these observations might 
prove useful in directing your minds to the contem- 
plation of the true principles which must ever direct 
Education that is to be essentially effective, I now 
present them to you with my best wishes, though the 
subject be not exhausted, nor the observations arranged 
so well as might have been the case had this been 
other than a merely ephemeral production, in which 
light I request it may be regarded. 

G. S. Mackenzie. 
Edinburgh, June 1836. 



ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



This Edition is., in reality, the third, a translation hav- 
ing been published in France while the author resided 
there in 1838-9. He has been induced to offer another 
Edition to the British Public, because, though much has 
been done for the cause of intellectual improvement, the 
education of the moral faculties and feelings is scarcely- 
attended to ; and even that of the intellect is not yet con- 
ducted under the guidance of any fixed principles. 

Experience has amply and sadly proved, that religious 
teaching, of itself, and under the usual form, does not im- 
prove society in reference to virtuous conduct, which it 
is the object of true religion to enforce. Truthfulness, 
Justice, and Christian Charity, are as rare in the conduct 
of men now as ever they were. Something, therefore, 
must be wrong — something is not properly understood — 
something must be yet unknown to the world in general, 
that is needed as a guide to education, religious, moral, 
and intellectual, und to put an end to the enormous ex- 
penditure of labour, of time, and of money, that has been 
going on for ages to little or no purpose, in so far as the 
morality of the world is concerned. Should this little 
work assist in pointing out where that which is needed 
may be found, the author will enjoy the conviction that 
such is the case, beyond any thing which this world can 
give. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS, &c. 



INTRODUCTION. 

It cannot be expected that, among- those who 
may take the trouble to peruse this volume, there 
are none who have imbibed, and who still cherish, 
prejudice in favour of old practices. It is requested, 
that every one to whom the subject is new, will re- 
solve to attend to what is to be stated and scrupu- 
lously to criticise it. It is not intended to seize on 
the imagination by means of studied eloquence, nor 
to entertain the fancy by entertaining" discourse. 
It will be our aim to deliver, in the plainest lan- 
guage,- truths derived from the plainest facts. It is 
the understanding that will be addressed ; and, 
therefore, the more narrowly the matter which will 
be delivered is examined, the more prominent will 
the truth appear. Those who have no prejudices 
to overcome, will be more ready to perceive truth 
when it is announced ; and it is hoped that, from 
them, some assistance may be obtained in dissemi- 
nating just views of the subject that is to be un- 
folded. 

Custom and habit unquestionably have influence 
on the understanding, both in fixing attachment to 
what we are accustomed to, and in rendering the 
nrnd unwilling to exert itself in looking at the ad- 

A 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

vantages of new discoveries. What our fathers did 
we are inclined to do, rather than to take the trouble 
to think for ourselves ; and the appeal to the wisdom 
of our ancestors, so often made by those who are in- 
clined to keep the human mind in bondage, has had 
too much effect in plunging mankind into apathy. 
That men whose interest it is to keep the human 
mind in darkness do exist, is a lamentable truth ; 
but the dawn of a new day has arisen, and its noon 
is now in prospect, when the light will guide the 
high and the low, the rich and the poor, into one 
broad highway, on which they will travel harmoni- 
ously together towards the Temple of Truth, in- 
structing and helping each other as brethren, the 
children of one common Father, whose will they 
strive to discover, whose commands it will be their 
delight to obey. 

The world being now older than it was in the 
days of our ancestors, the race having existed longer, 
our experience should be of greater extent than 
theirs. Accordingly, although light shone but 
dimly into the minds of men, although the meteors 
which occasionally flashed with extraordinary illu- 
mination, had little influence, still there has been 
a continual advance in knowledge and improve- 
ment. To an indifferent spectator, the progress of 
human atfairs seems to be the result of mere circum- 
stances ; but, by the reflective observer, the hand 
is seen of that beneficent Providence, which, alive 
to the happiness of the creatures He has formed, 
lias ordered that discovery and improvement shall 
bo gradual, but constant. At times the page of 
history is almost a blank in relation to the human 



INTRODUCTION. 6 

race, which we find absorbed in the gratifications 
of its animal nature, even in the midst of refinement. 
Barbarous tribes swept over the land where philo- 
sophy, literature, and the arts, had flourished ; and 
even where the lights of Christianity were kindled, 
the lust of dominion and riches strove, and to a vast 
extent succeeded, to render them the means of add- 
ing- superstition to ignorance, so as still farther to 
debase the human mind. In all this, however, the 
great design seems never to have been changed. 

Notwithstanding all the valuable improvements 
that have been made, and that we have the benefit 
of much light that was denied to our fathers, pre- 
judice still lurks amongst us. The love of power 
and of influence, as well as the love of self, lead to 
the desire that things should remain as they are, 
because it is plain that knowledge is power ; and 
power so great, that it will not much longer endure 
that the human intellect should be swayed, so as to 
subserve the purposes of those whose gratification 
depends on its being hoodwinked. It is fortunate 
that those who see the fall of their power, involved 
in the dissemination of knowledge, have exposed 
themselves in an unseemly manner. Their ex- 
pressed fears are the surest indications that all 
things are working together for good. Yet those 
who wish well to their fellow-creatures, must not 
conceal from themselves the risk of letting popular 
feeling loose, in the eager desire for change. Since 
those who desire no change have been rash in their 
denunciations against the dissemination of know- 
ledge, and have excited the dislike of the people to 
a degree that may be destructive, those who desire 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

a change from darkness and oppression into light 
and liberty, must hasten to arrest the passions by 
attracting the intellects of the people. Most per- 
sons agree in the propriety of this ; and some pre- 
tend to agree, with the view to pervert the means 
employed into forging yet more galling chains for 
the understanding. Many of those, however, w r ho 
are sincerely devoted to the improvement of man, 
are uncertain how to proceed. This wavering 
among the friends of knowledge arises wholly from 
ignorance of the principles on which a rational de- 
sire for change is founded and which have been long 
concealed. Mankind have gone on so long without 
just and true principles to guide them, that the 
want of them has not been observed. Happily 
there exists a higher power that rules the destinies 
of man. It has been determined by Him who 
formed the human mind, that it shall not always 
be in darkness ; that it shall go on progressively in 
its acquirements of knowledge ; that it shall bene- 
fit by that knowledge, and draw nearer and nearer 
to its Creator. 

Those who are unaccustomed to observe the pro- 
gress of knowledge, do not know how wonderfully 
that progress unfolds the beneficence, as well as the 
power and wisdom, of God. It would appear that 
He has ordained the chief pleasure of man to be to 
search into his works, and there to see Him. And 
when any science is pursued, discoveries are made 
which open up one field of research after another, 
so as to make it probable that myriads of ages may 
elapse, and still something new nwd more wonder- 
nil \\\\\ remain to be discovered. In my youth, the 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

science of Chemistry was confined to a few facts ; 
and it appeared that but a few substances existed 
which appeared uncompounded and simple. By 
degrees some of these were decomposed by the ap- 
plication of newly discovered agents ; and now, so 
many fields of research have been opened, as to pro- 
duce a scarcity of labourers ; and it is almost im- 
possible for any one mind to embrace even a tithe 
of the mere facts of science. Since, then, the amount 
of knowledge has already vastly increased, and as 
it appears that immense accumulations are yet in 
store for those who will accept the bounty of the 
Author of all things, it becomes of more and more 
importance that the modes of educating the young 
should be improved, that succeeding generations 
may be fitted to enjoy God in his works, to the full 
extent which He is pleased to offer, and be thus 
prepared for still greater enjoyment in a life to come. 
It is of the greatest importance to lead the youthful 
mind first to see what has been discovered ; for this 
better enables it to direct its energies with profit 
towards attaining new acquirements, and the high 
enjoyment of contemplating the immensity of that 
intelligence and power which brought all things 
into existence, and the inconceivable extent of that 
benevolence which directs that power to produce 
enjoyment for its creatures. 



DIVISIONS OF EDUCATION. 



DIVISIONS OF EDUCATION. 



There are four great branches of Education. The 
first relates to the acquirement of the means to ar- 
rive at knowledge ; the second is the manner in 
which knowledge is obtained by the means ; the 
third relates to the cultivation and regulation of the 
mental faculties, or moral education ; and the fourth 
to religious education. Or, a division may be made 
into the objects of education as they refer to the 
comfort and happiness of society, or moral educa- 
tion ; and into those referring to the individual, or 
religious education. 

For a regular moral education, a matter of such 
vast importance to society, it is lamentable to think 
that there exists no public provision. Vast sums 
are levied in the shape of taxes, which are expended 
on the punishment of crime; but not one farthing 
is devoted to that which alone can prevent crime 
from disturbing society. If crime has abated in 
amount, if any means have been applied to dimi- 
nish its frequency* society does not owe them to as- 
sistance from the public purse. We hear indeed of 
penitentiaries, of establishing systems of prison dis- 
cipline, of Magdalene asylums, of houses of refuge, 
— but not one of these is applicable to prevention 
of crime, and they are but poorly contrived for re- 
formation. The Legislature is engaged in making 
inquiry, and it is hoped that, at least, an approach 
to the proper means of preventing crime may ere 
long be made. For religious education most ample 



DIVISIONS OF EDUCATION. 7 

provision has been made, and the community pay 
most liberally for it. But, with all the munificence 
displayed in this department, it appears that there 
exists something" that hinders it from conferring all 
the benefits on society that may reasonably be ex- 
pected from it. What that something" is, may in 
due time be discovered and removed. At present 
it cannot be denied, by any one who has duly em- 
ployed his powers of observation, that religion has 
not that power in the direction of human conduct 
which it ought to have ; and it is of the utmost im- 
portance that the cause of this should be discovered. 
Probably both positive and negative causes exist, 
and whatever we may suspect to belong to either 
class, should be seized upon and investigated. And 
in the investigation, it should be kept in view that 
theoretical metaphysical reasoning will not now 
satisfy the world, and that nothing but the result 
of induction from facts will carry conviction. It is 
not to be denied, however lamentable it may be, 
that minds exist to which even inductive reasoning 
will not bring conviction. 

No subject has been more written upon than edu- 
cation. Piles of volumes have been published and 
forgotten ; and for this reason, that no sound princi- 
ples were laid down on which a system could rest. 
Without a foundation formed of imperishable mate- 
rials, — materials brought together by the hand of 
the Great Creator himself, — no enduring super- 
structure can be raised. In all discussions on this 
most important subject, principles must never be 
lost sight of. It is our wish to lay them open to 
view, and perha'ps there may be rashness in ima- 



b NATURE OF THE 

gining that we may do so with effect. As no other 
more able expositor of modern discovery was likely 
to be induced to undertake the task, and as it is al- 
ways of consequence to redeem the time, many con- 
siderations that might have deterred us are waived ; 
and while we endeavour to compress into as small 
a space as possible that which is necessary to be 
known, before any one can undertake the office of a 
teacher with any certain prospect of success, we 
trust to the indulgent forgiveness of whatever may 
appear to be failure, and to a proper and just con 
struction being put on our motives. If we shall be 
instrumental in rousing attention to the principles 
by which education should be directed, our time 
will have been well occupied, and our satisfaction 
will be complete. 



NATURE OF THE SUBJECT TO BE EDUCATED. 

When a subject is presented to us for education, 
it is surely proper to inquire into its nature. If 
we desire to fashion any inanimate substance into 
a particular shape, we never fail to examine its 
qualities and properties. Were we to present a 
mass of wood to a carver, and bid him cut certain 
figures upon it, the first thing he would do would 
be to try the hardness of the material, and its other 
properties, in reference to the resistance it was 
likely to offer to his tools, with the view to deter- 
mine whether it would answer the purpose required. 
Yrt when a child is presented to a professed teacher, 
tie makes no inquiry into the nature of the subject. 



SUBJECT TO BE EDUCATED. 9 

He thinks it will make no resistance to the only 
tool he employs ; that the lash will mould it to his 
will. In ignorance of the human constitution, he 
thinks all children are alike. He was tyrannized 
over himself, and deems it fair to be a tyrant in his 
turn ; and thus the wisdom of our ancestors is 
handed down from generation to generation. The 
ordinary schoolmaster goes blindly to his work. 
He is paid for his work ; and if it be spoiled, he 
declares it is not his fault, but that of the subject. 
He jdeads its stupidity, obstinacy, carelessness, and 
so forth. He never inquires into the causes of such 
untoward qualities, which give such resistance to 
his tool. If he cannot remove them by exhibiting 
passion, and inflicting- disgTace and the lash, he 
thinks no more about the matter; and the child 
comes out of his hands nothing the better* but in all 
probability greatly the worse, of what it has pleased 
good people to call education. As it is obvious to 
the most careless observation-^-as it has been a 
thousand times stated in books- — that children as 
well as grown-up persons differ from each other in 
capacity and character, as much as in shape and 
feature, it is wonderful that the world should have 
grown so old before the causes of such diversity 
were sought for. Metaphysical theories have been 
broached in abundance, and a vast amount of splen- 
did talent and eloquence wasted ; for whenever such 
theories are tested by experiment, — whenever they 
are applied to facts of the most common occurrence, 
-t— they fail entirely ; and we lament that the genius 
of so many great men (for great they were, though 
their efforts failed) should have expended its energy 



10 NATURE OF THE 

on that which can be classed only with frivolities, 
since it led to no practically useful result, however 
profound its investigations. Before we proceed to 
educate, we must thoroughly understand the nature 
of that which is to be educated ; and it will appear 
of the greatest importance, when that nature shall 
be known, to make the subject of education ac- 
quainted with it. We propose, therefore, to exhibit 
a general view of the nature and constitution of 
Man, physical and mental, in so far as these have 
yet been ascertained by observation and experi- 
ment ; and to point out in what manner the know- 
ledge of the nature and constitution of man is to 
serve as a true guide in education. We are not to 
enter into these subjects in the manner of teaching 
them. But this need not be regretted, as the means 
of acquiring more extended information are within 
reach. 

The first inquiry is, How is the nature and con- 
stitution of man to be discovered ? Metaphysicians 
adopted the method of studying their own conscious- 
ness, and that method has been found wanting; for 
the instant that a man compares himself with an- 
other man, he discovers so g'reat a difference, that 
he can no longer set himself up as a standard. One 
man may feel that he has a constant inclination to 
be tender and merciful to his fellow-creatures, and 
to do good to them ; but were he to believe all men 
to be so disposed, he would greatly err. For another 
may be seen, who, by his cruelty of action, betrays 
that he lias no consciousness of tenderness and 
mercy, but a disposition to injure and destroy, the 
gratification of which gives him pleasure. It is 



SUBJECT TO BE EDUCATED. 11 

therefore evident, that it is by observation alone 
that man can be known. 

As it is obvious that man does not owe his exist- 
ence to himself, we may rest assured, that whatever 
we may discover by' observation has been produced 
by the Creator for the best and wisest of purposes. 
We may meet with facts difficult to be explained ; 
we may see what may puzzle us to reconcile with 
that Perfect Morality which we believe clothes the 
Most High God ; we may imagine there is injustice 
in some of his appointments ; but this we shall cer- 
tainly learn, that, in as far as we have yet been 
able to penetrate, every thing- appears to be ordered, 
according to our own conceptions of what is right 
and necessary in reference to the end in view. The 
just inference is, that, as we proceed, difficulty after 
difficulty will disappear, and that we may rest as- 
sured that Perfect Wisdom and Perfect Justice have 
not erred. Where error seems to exist, it will be 
found to rest with ourselves; and that, whatever 
may come upon us that we would avoid, we have 
brought upon ourselves by neglecting to search for 
the laws which the Creator has established to go- 
vern nature; and, consequently, by our ignorantly 
infringing them. Unless, however, we know our 
own nature, and the relation in which we stand to 
all that is around us, we cannot discover the Crea- 
tor's laws, nor learn his will. He has beneficently 
spread out before us the great, the attractive, the 
beautiful book of Nature, in which He reveals him- 
self by his works. Are we to cast that work aside 
and treat it with neglect, or are we to apply the 
powers which have been given to us in the delight- 



12 GENERAL STRUCTURE AND 

ful labour of turning- over its leaves, and in every 
page reading- a call to adore Supreme Power, Wis- 
dom, and Goodness? Who that is endowed with a 
rational soul can hesitate in his choice ? Let us, 
then, open the book, and see what we are, and what 
we are destined to attain, 



GENERAL STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE 
BODY. 

Our bodies are formed upon a structure of bone, 
admirably adapted for having- fitted to it an appa- 
ratus of a most complicated kind, by means of 
which the body is made either to move or stand still. 
The appearance of desig-n is remarkably prominent 
in the formation of the skeleton ; for it shews that, 
before trie first man was created, the whole of his 
structure, and the functions of every part, must have 
passed through the mighty intelligence of the Crea- 
tor. The design was complete ere a single part 
was formed ; and, in adaptation of means to ends, 
it is impossible for us to conceive how any one end 
could have been attained by more simple and ef- 
fective means. The Bones are united by joints, 
beautifully fitted, and bound together by ligaments, 
at once strong, light, and flexible. To produce 
motion, the Muscles, as they are named, are fixed 
to the bones, and they are varied in length, in mass, 
and in position, so as to act as ropes for drawing 
the bones into any required direction. The strength 
of the muscles is enormous in proportion to their 
size. So powerful are they, that the blast which 



FUNCTIONS OF THE BODY. 13 

rends a gnarled oak, fails to throw a man upon the 
ground. Among- the muscles we observe a num- 
ber of branching tubes and threads ; and, tracing 
these, we find the former connected with a strong 
muscular hollow vessel, which is named the Heart, 
and the latter connected with a mass of matter 
contained in the skull, and of a tender pulpy struc- 
ture, called the Brain. Tracing the passage of 
our food from the mouth, we find that it is carried 
through a tube into a bag formed of muscular and 
membranous fibres. In this it is elaborated, and 
in a fluid state it passes along another tube, vary- 
ing in its diameter, and tortuous in its course. 
This tube is supported in a most curious manner, 
and we find it connected with numerous tubes and 
threads such as have been already noticed. We 
also find a connection subsisting between it and 
some of these tubes which conduct to the Heart. 
Another kind of tube connects the tortuous aliment- 
ary canal with another large viscus, called the 
Liver. From the heart proceed tubes which pass 
into another large viscus of a very delicate and curi- 
ous structure, called the Lungs, from which ascend 
various pipes, which terminate in a large one com- 
municating with the mouth, and thus with the ex- 
ternal air, by means of which breathing, or respira- 
tion, is carried on in the lungs. The fluid called 
the Blood is contained in the heart, and the nume- 
rous branching tubes connected with it. The heart 
is formed so as to expand and contract, and thus to 
drive the blood through one set of tubes, called Ar- 
teries, into another set, called Veins, by which it 
returns to the heart, to be again circulated. In its 



14 GENERAL STRUCTURE AND 

passage through the arteries the blood loses some- 
thing, as is proved by the fact, that its colour changes 
from a florid red to a dark hue. This loss is sup- 
plied by an apparatus of tubes, which conveys the 
dark blood from the heart, and spreads it out through 
the lungs where it is brought into contact with the 
air we breathe, which restores to it part of that 
which it had lost. To supply the waste of the 
blood, from which every part of the body derives its 
nourishment, a tube conveys a certain portion of the 
elaborated food into the circulating mass. Now, 
in order to induce his creatures to preserve them- 
selves, and at the same time to derive pleasure from 
the duty, a vast variety of food is presented. Of 
course much of this is unessential to the preserva- 
tion of the body, and therefore the elaborating ap- 
paratus has been contrived. This abstracts from 
the food, in a manner incomprehensible to us, all 
that is wholesome, and the rest is excreted, — the 
grosser parts by the alimentary canal, and the use- 
less fluids and soluble matter are abstracted from 
the blood by the apparatus called the Kidneys, 
whence they are poured into the reservoir named 
the Bladder, and ejected. Let us now return to 
those numerous threads which were mentioned as 
being connected with a mass of peculiar structure 
contained within the skull. It has been discovered 
by direct experiment, that, by means of these threads, 
called Nerves, a certain influence proceeds from the 
brain, which produces the action of the muscles. 
Within the back-bone is a hollow, through which 
passes what is called the Spinal Cord or Marrow, 
which is a prolongation of the matter from the 



FUNCTIONS OF THE BODY. 15 

brain. From this cord nerves proceed in every di- 
rection. Now, if. the communication betwixt any 
muscle and the brain be cut off, by dividing- the 
nerve which belongs to it, that muscle becomes use- 
less, and it cannot be moved. If the spinal marrow 
be cut through at its upper part, the body at once 
drops a powerless mass. Thus it appears the whole 
power and strength of muscular action is derived 
from the brain. But, farther, there is a large nerve 
which connects the eye with the brain ; if this be 
divided, blindness is the consequence. And when- 
ever any nerve is destroyed, so as to stop the con- 
nection with the brain of the part to which it goes, 
that part ceases to perform its functions ; and thus 
we may lose the five senses. The influence of the 
brain, then, appears to be indispensable to life. 
But still more extraordinary phenomena are con- 
nected with this body of ours. We are conscious 
that within us there is a power, which we call the 
Will. We will to move our limbs, that they should 
carry us hither and thither ; we will to do a thou- 
sand things, and they are done. Yet, whenever the 
communication with the brain and a limb is cut off, 
we will to move it in vain. Hence it becomes evi- 
dent, that the will and the brain are somehow or 
other connected. We are conscious of power to 
form designs, and to arrange plans for executing 
them. But if we drink a certain quantity of strong 
liquor, not only do the limbs refuse to do their office 
but all our plans are forgotten ; we can neither 
think, nor speak, nor act. What is the cause of 
this ? The effect of the strong liquor is to quicken 
the circulation of the blood, and to throw so much 



16 UNION OF MIND AND BODY. 

into the vessels which enter the brain as to com- 
press it, and thus render it unfit for its office. The 
powers we possess may, in their utmost state of 
activity, be all set asleep by a few grains of opium. 
Although all these extraordinary effects are pro- 
duced, we cannot bring- ourselves to believe that our 
consciousness, our thoughts, and our reasonings, are 
all performed by a mass of pulpy matter. We can- 
not reconcile ourselves to the notion that those feel- 
ings, which lead us to venerate a Supreme Being, 
are of earth; nor that the blessed feeling of Hope, 
that wafts us to regions unseen, nor that which as- 
pirates after perfection, and makes us wish to live 
for ever, belong to dust that shall to dust return. 
Since his creation, man has possessed an intuitive 
sense that he is a compound being ; that a spirit in- 
habits the body, which regulates all its movements, 
and from which spring all our desires and all our 
powers. 



Union or mind and body. 

The fact, then, being admitted, that man is com- 
pounded of a body and a spirit or mind, it is natural 
to ask, How are they united ? This question cannot 
be answered. It is a mystery reserved by the Crea- 
tor which he has not thought fit to reveal. We are, 
however, permitted to know, from the facts already 
stated, and multitudes of others, that the mind is 
so united to the body as to be dependent on it for 
its manifestations, as well as for its acquirements, 
Every action, every utterance of thought, is pro- 



UNION OF MIND AND BODY* 17 

duced by means of a bodily organ. Every thing* com- 
municated to the mind from without, passes through 
a material instrument. The union and mutual de- 
pendence of mind and body are so complete, that 
injury to the body affects the manifestations of the 
mind ; and, without the directing power, the body 
would be useless, with all its most wonderful struc- 
ture, and beautiful contrivances. 

We now come to a very important fact, which, 
while it is notorious and universally observed, has 
nevertheless failed to impress its value on those who 
undertake the office of teachers. The mind seems 
to grow along with the body. Not that we need 
suppose that what is immaterial increases in the 
same manner as that which is material ; but it is 
evident the body is not all at once fitted to manifest 
the powers of mind. The new-born babe exhibits 
only an instinct to draw nourishment from the 
breast. By degrees its eyes convey to it some in- 
telligence of external things ; and it manifests by 
natural language, whether it feels pain or experi- 
ences pleasure. At a more advanced stage it ac- 
quires artificial language, by an imperceptible pro- 
cess of induction learning the meaning and arrange- 
ment of words. But it is not till after the lapse of 
many years that the powers of thought arrive at 
their utmost vigour. As we cannot, then, conceive 
of the mind that it grows, we arrive at the conclu- 
sion that the body becomes gradually fitted for its 
use, and thus in appearance they keep pace with 
each other. 

Before drawing the inferences which the facts 
already stated justify in reference to education, it is 

B 



18 UNION OF MIND AND BODY. 

proper to know what faculties or powers of mind 
are manifested when the body is in a state of ma- 
turity. This inquiry is the most important by far 
into which philosophy can enter. It has occupied 
the finest geniuses — the most powerful talents ; but 
it was reserved for the age we live in to strike into 
the true path, and to make discoveries that will 
raise the mental power of man to a degree of which 
we can scarcely form a conception. Nor will the 
power alone be augmented ; human virtue and hu- 
man happiness will be commensurate. It is not 
destined that we who may contemplate the dawn, 
shall see the sun arise and proceed to meridian 
splendour. Ignorance still sits heavy as an incubus 
on man, and prejudice yet holds him down by the 
chain which ignorance has rivetted. Efforts the 
most, gigantic must yet be made, before the eye of 
the world can be opened to the light. But let God 
be blessed that we can perceive His beneficent in- 
tentions towards the human race, and that He per- 
mits man to approach to Him nearer, and yet near- 
er. It is that 'great production of the Great Creator, 
the Mind, that is destined for the great work. To 
it is given to enjoy the delight of unfolding itself, 
and its relation to external things ; of learning that 
almost all the ills of life may be avoided by obe- 
dience to laws which unerring wisdom has enacted, 
and left to the mind to discover. The truest enjoy- 
ment in this life is to seek for God in his works, to 
contemplate their arrangement and connexion, and 
to turn them, as he has permitted, to our o\vn ad- 
vantage, 



FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 19 



FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 

The words Faculties and Powers, as applied to 
the mind, have been used indiscriminately. The 
word Instinct has been employed to denote some- 
thing" inferior, and is used chiefly when speaking" of 
the lower creation. But as this word rather tends 
to confuse, and as man has instincts equally with 
his inferiors in creation, it seems best to use the 
word faculty, and, instead of instinct, to employ 
the term propensity. Philosophers have enumerated 
a great number of faculties, and have so mingled 
modes of action with primitive functions, as to leave 
us without any precise notion of their exact mean- 
ing. In the enumeration about to be made, it is 
our intention to follow that which has been laid 
down in the new philosophy known by the term 
Phrenology. It is now about half a century since 
this philosophy was first announced. It is twenty- 
four years since it was made known to us. We had 
attended the prelections of the celebrated Professor 
Dugald Stewart in the University of Edinburgh, 
and been tired by vain efforts to discover to what 
useful purpose the philosophy he taught could be 
applied. When the new philosophy appeared, it 
was represented in such a manner that we joined 
in the ridicule that was lavished upon it. Accident 
led us to the acquaintance of the able coadjutor of 
Dr Gall, who discovered the true philosophy of man; 
and we perceived that the matter had been igno- 
rantly and grossly misrepresented. In no long time 
our acquaintance with Dr Spurzheim ripened into 



20 FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 

friendship; and that most able, amiable, and ex- 
cellent man, opened up to us, as it were, a new ex- 
istence. Like all other things that are new, Phre- 
nology has been, and still is, exposed to a sort of 
persecution from those who will not take the trouble 
to learn what it is ; and from that we have suffered ; 
but in the company of men who are ornaments to 
their kind, and to whom truth and honesty are valu- 
able above all things. Conscious of the vast in- 
trinsic value of the new philosophy, we felt assured 
that time would discover that value to the whole 
world ; and we have been supported in our efforts 
to propagate truth by the conviction, that, if our 
names should survive us, posterity would make us 
ample amends. It has been so ordered, however, 
that, though Gall and Spurzheim have paid the 
debt of nature, some of their earliest disciples have 
lived to see the truth already spreading to an extent, 
and with a rapidity* which they could not have con- 
ceived possible, and that in different quarters of the 
globe ; so true it is, that great is truth, and that it 
must prevail. It is not our purpose to teach this 
new philosophy, but only to satisfy the reader that 
certain faculties do exist, and are necessary for us 
as social beings. It may be mentioned, however, 
that the faculties to be enumerated and illustrated 
have been ascertained to be connected with certain 
portions of the brain, which are the material instru- 
ments destined for their being manifested. The 
brain is not the mind, nor are its parts faculties of 
the mind, though ignorant and senseless persons 
have affirmed that such is the doctrine of the new 
philosophy. No one denies that the eye is the ma- 



FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 21 

terial instrument by means of which light, colour, 
and form, are conveyed to the mind ; and we find the 
eye connected by a nerve with the brain, certain 
parts of which have been ascertained to be the or- 
gans in most direct union with the mind, which 
receives from them the intelligence, as it were, 
that light, colour, and form, are present. So it 
is with the other senses, which are the gates by 
which objects enter into the chamber of the mind, 
where it employs its instruments to perceive, to re- 
flect, to compare, and to judge. The question of 
Materialism will here naturally occur to you, and 
we beg to say a very few words on that subject. 

Some men, noted for acuteness and talent, have 
affirmed that what is called Mind is not an imma- 
terial principle, but that its manifestations are the 
result of a peculiar combination of material sub- 
stances, endowed with what is called life, which 
also, they have said, results from certain material 
influences. Such an announcement instantly brings 
down upon the devoted head the execrations of re- 
ligious feeling, and the thunders of the church, — 
the unfortunate philosopher is denounced as a hea- 
then, an infidel, and so forth. Now we would have 
every one to reflect in this manner, believing them 
to be Christians : Jesus Christ himself never uttered 
a reproachful word. He exhorted his followers not 
to rail at their neighbours, even though they should 
rail at them. He denounced and reproached hy- 
pocrisy ; but never the expression of a mere opinion. 
He strove to reclaim men from the errors of their 
ways, and knew well that reviling was not the way 
to effect that important end. If, then, any one 



22 FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 

should broach the opinion (for it is no more) that 
mind is nothing but a modification of matter, let 
the question be put, What is matter, a modification 
of which is spoken of? The instant this question is 
pronounced, the utter impossibility of answering- it 
is perceived. All the multitudes of chemical dis- 
coveries have not yet opened, even to imagination, 
a hope that what matter is can ever be known to 
man. 

We may feel an eagerness to dive into the mys- 
teries of creation ; but we may rest assured that 
whatever power is denied to us, is denied to us be- 
cause it is for our good. Now, we are altogether 
ignorant of what mind may be, as well as matter ; 
and the materialist could equally puzzle us by put- 
ting the question, What is mind ? It is inferred, 
but erroneously, that if the opinion of the materia- 
list were correct, it would impugn the doctrine of 
the immortality of the soul. We say erroneously ; 
because it is obvious that nothing is impossible to 
God. If it has pleased Him to form body and soul 
of matter, what is that to us ? He made both soul 
and body, and he can destroy them both. He can 
kill and make alive again ; and this whether the 
materialist be right or wrong in his conjecture. 
Although the body is formed to die — although we 
should even suppose that the soul dies with it — 
though they be reduced to dust, or dispersed in 
smoke — who will dare to say that the power of God 
cannot reunite them at his good pleasure, and not 
only restore their former union, but improve their 
nature, so that, while the condition of former exis- 
tence is not forgotten, they shall be fitted for that 



FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 23 

new scene of enjoyment reserved for the just when 
made perfect ? Thus we perceive that the opinion 
of the materialist is of no value or consequence 
whatever. But suppose that a man's mind shall be 
in such a condition as to give such an opinion the 
hold of belief. Suppose that this belief should lead 
to the idea that death is annihilation. We ought not 
to use harsh expressions or severity against him 
who may be so unhappy as to be reduced to such 
a state of mind. It is more fitting that Christians 
should mildly exert themselves to convince him of 
error, than violently to abuse him, and treat him as 
an outcast. Any man or set of men holding certain 
opinions contrary to our own, can inflict no injury 
upon us. If we should feel offended, and desire to 
wreak vengeance on our brother who differs from us 
in opinion, we are guilty of abusing our faculties* 
as we propose afterwards to point out, when con- 
sidering what may be called their legitimate and 
illegitimate exercise. If one man has a right to 
judge and form an opinion, every other man has the 
same undoubted right. This is Christian doctrine, 
and the doctrines of the new philosophy accord with 
it. Our being right or wrong in conjecture cannot 
interrupt the order of nature. 



SPECIAL CONNECTION OF THE MIND AND THE 
BRAIN. 

We find that injuries of the brain, and also dis- 
ease, injure also the manifestations of mind, — so 
intimate is the connection which the Creator has 



24 SPECIAL CONNECTION OF THE 

made between the mind and its instruments. It 
was the observation of such facts, and of external 
forms indicating the predominance of certain facul- 
ties, that led to the discoveries of the new philoso- 
phy, which is wholly founded on observed facts; 
and the existence of certain faculties has been as- 
certained in the same way. There may be many 
faculties yet undiscovered. What we at present 
deem modes of activity may resolve themselves into 
faculties. The poverty of language greatly retards 
the progress of discovery ; and it will probably soon 
be necessary to invent new terms, as has been done 
in physical science. 

The Faculties are arranged into those which are 
common to man and the lower animals, and those 
which are peculiar to man, and which confer upon 
him the high place which he holds in creation. It 
may appear extraordinary to some persons that men- 
tal faculties should be possessed by the lower ani- 
mals, that they should be endowed with mind. A 
little observation and reflection will soon convince 
such persons that such is the fact. Looking at the bo- 
dily structure of man, and comparing it with that of 
the lower creation, it becomes apparent that all are 
formed on a general plan, varied according to the 
manner in which each was destined to live. Ex- 
amine the skeletons, and you will find that all the 
parts, head, chest, arms, pelvis, spine, and legs, are 
present in the same relative position, though modi- 
fied in proportions and shape. The wings of a bird, 
the fore legs of a quadruped, the fins of the whale 
tribe, and perhaps of all fishes, correspond to the 
arms in man. In tubes, feet and legs are absent, 



MIND AND THE BRAIN. 25 

because they need them not in the element in which 
they live; and we find that all the other animals 
which live in the sea, but which seek their food at 
the bottom and among- rocks, have feet, and differ- 
ent kinds of locomotive apparatus. No one denies 
that to will to do any thing- is an operation of mind. 
We will to go from one place to another, and our 
feet obey. No one imagines that he obeys his feet. 
Feet are given to the lower animals that they may 
carry them where their will directs. They have 
eyes and ears as well as we ; and if our eyes or ears 
warn us of danger, our minds quickly prompt the 
limbs into action. Eyes and ears must serve the 
same purposes to the lower members of creation, 
which are all sentient beings as we are. Their in- 
ternal structure is similar to ours, and their skulls 
contain brains which send forth nerves to be mes- 
sengers to the mind from all parts of the body. 
They experience pleasure, and suffer pain, as well 
as we ; and facts are on record which exhibit some- 
thing very like reflection. We need not, however, 
detain you on this subject at present, however inte- 
resting and entertaining it may be. As, then, 
faculties are possessed by man in common with the 
lower animals, he has in him what is properly de- 
nominated animal nature. But he has powers so 
peculiar, that he possesses also human nature. We 
are not, however, to shew how the faculties have 
been ascertained to exist, and traced to their organs. 
To do so would be to undertake to teach the history 
and progress of Phrenology, the science itself, and 
all its bearings on human affairs and human enjoy- 
ment. It is intended only to shew that certain fa- 



26 DIVISION OF THE FACULTIES. 

culties do exist, with the view to develope certain 
principles that ought to guide education, and must 
guide it to render it effective. 



DIVISION OF THE FACULTIES. 

The new philosophy, then, divides the faculties 
into Feeling-s or Affective Faculties, and Intellec- 
tual Faculties. These two orders are subdivided 
into genera ; the first includes the Propensities, 
faculties which produce desires, inclinations, or in- 
stincts only, and are all common to man and the 
lower animals. There are other feelings, which 
are denominated Sentiments. Each of these joins 
to a propensity, an emotion or feeling of a peculiar 
kind. Some of them are common to man and ani- 
mals. These constitute the second genus, and may 
be regarded as Inferior Sentiments ; while those 
that are peculiar to man are denominated the Su- 
perior Sentiments, and form a third genus. The 
Intellectual Faculties are divided into the Percep- 
tive — those which perceive the existence of external 
objects and their physical qualities ; and the Reflec- 
tive Faculties. 

We shall now consider, first, the Propensities — * 
those faculties which are common to man and the 
lower animals. And, at the outset, it may be re- 
marked, that, while the latter have not the means 
of regulating their faculties, they are, to a certain 
degree, limited in their operations. With man it 
is different. He has powers which, when duly 



DIVISION OF THE FACULTIES. 27 

exercised, control his propensities, and if he do not 
control them he sins. There are, however, circum- 
stances connected with organization, and which 
have probably arisen from neglect to investigate 
the laws of our nature, that sometimes render con- 
trol extremely difficult; and diseased organization 
induces a state in which control is entirely absent. 
Each faculty having an organ in the brain by means 
of which it is manifested, and the organs bearing a 
variety of proportions among themselves, and vary- 
ing also in general size, faculties are stronger in 
their manifestations in some persons than in others, 
as accords with every day observation. This holds 
with the propensities, as well as with the faculties 
proper to man. It is therefore obvious that, when- 
ever any part of our animal nature appears so strong 
as likely to run into abuse, it ought to be a primary 
object of education to point out to the being edu- 
cated his own nature, the dangers of permitting 
any faculty whatever to act in excess, and the duty 
of calling the higher powers of his nature to con- 
trol the lower ; so that the important Christian 
precept may be obeyed, — to use the world as not 
abusing it. 



INSTINCT AND LAWS OF PROPAGATION. 

Many, it may be perhaps said all the evils of life, 
may be traced to a well-meaning but false and hurt- 
ful delicacy, which makes us afraid to communicate 
to the young those things on which mainly depend 
the propriety of their conduct in life, their bodily 



28 INSTINCT AND LAWS OF PROPAGATION. 

and their mental health. God said it was not good 
for man to be alone, and he made an help meet for 
him. He created man male and female, and en- 
dowed them with feeiing-s that attract them to each 
other, and which, when subdued into obedience, and 
combined with our better faculties, enable man to 
attain the greatest of all blessings of which his 
state is capable, the rational enjoyment of a family, 
and of his truest friend ; and that friend becomes 
the more true, and the more devoted, when she too 
exercises her better powers, and when mutual efforts 
are made against whatever may tempt from the 
path of rectitude. But if it be thus important to 
the happiness of the married state to obey the 
higher impulses of our nature, is it not also a duty 
the most imperative to study the welfare and happi- 
ness of progeny ? When we are aware of the evils 
which are brought upon society by the disorderly 
indulgence of the sexual propensity — when we Snow 
that bodily and mental health are both destroyed 
by it when it acts alone — is it justifiable to the 
Creator and our own consciences to keep the young 
in a state of ignorance, until a fatal curiosity is pro- 
voked, which compromises their own health of mind 
and body, and also that of their descendants ? The 
influence of this feeling on society is prodigi- 
ous ; and its evil influence proceeds from ourselves, 
not from the great and beneficent Creator. He 
created man, and bade him increase and multiply. 
For the wisest and most benevolent ends, it has 
pleased the Creator to endow us with strong im- 
pulses, but he has also warned us not to abuse his 
bounty. If we do so, the consequences rest with 



INSTINCT AND LAWS OF PROPAGATION. 29 

ourselves, and we are inevitably punished by our 
own acts, in the loss of bodily health and of mental 
power. The evil of abuse extends itself to a lamen- 
table extent in those countries where the men em- 
ployed as religious guides are condemned to religi- 
ous celibacy, — an institution at total variance at 
once with reason and with divine law. 

But let us for a moment turn from the evil and 
contemplate the good. . Let us look at what God 
has given us to use, and we shall feel his goodness. 
When joined with other faculties, and permitted to 
operate only in its pure and elevated sphere, the 
propensity in question forms the basis of that re- 
fining and subduing sentiment which we call love. 
In purity and disinterestedness, it is most eminent 
in woman. In all ages the love of women has been 
extolled ; and we may refer to Scripture for an esti- 
mate of its value. In David's lament for Jonathan 
he says, "I am distressed for thee, my brother 
Jonathan ; very pleasant hast thou been to me ; 
thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of 
woman." Woman nurses our childhood ; solaces 
and cheers our mature age ; in our hours of sickness 
she is a ministering angel ; nay, to succour us in 
danger she will risk her very life. Is such a being, 
then, given to us only to be a slave to passion ? Is 
the happiness and the value of such a gift from the 
hand of God to be sacrificed by concealing those 
laws of the Creator which ignorance may cause to 
be disobeyed? Surely not. 

We have already mentioned, that the discovery 
on which the new philosophy rests is, that every 
propensity, every faculty manifested by man, is so 



30 INSTINCT AND LAWS OF PROPAGATION. 

manifested through the instrumentality of a mate- 
rial organ. It is now necessary to inform you, that 
manifestations are strong* in proportion to the size 
of the organ in the brain, supposing it in health, 
and that this proposition may, in almost all cases, 
be distinctly recognised in the external shape of the 
head. Thus we have a sure indication to guide us 
in the degree of care and caution to be employed in 
bringing up the young. It has been also ascer- 
tained that the brain is subject to the laws of exer- 
cise, and that by regulated exercise an organ may 
be improved, and by want of it its energy may be 
repressed. Disease sometimes excites an organ to 
a degree that causes its manifestations to be inor- 
dinate, and this is insanity or madness. The pre- 
servation of health becomes therefore of the utmost 
importance ; and in reference to that matter, we 
earnestly recommend to the perusal of young and 
old Dr Combe's admirable work, entitled, " The 
Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation 
of Health and to the Improvement of Physical and 
Mental Education," and also to his more recent work 
on Digestion and Diet. 

In reference to what we have been considering, 
we propose now to lay before you a summary of the 
laws of propagation. The subject is most import- 
ant in an educational point of view, because with- 
out a healthy body there cannot be a healthy mind ; 
and as it has pleased the Creator that the manifes- 
tations of mind shall depend on the state of mate- 
rial organs, and as these organs are subject to the 
laws of propagation, the value of a knowledge of 
these becomes at once prominent. Every one is 



INSTINCT AND LAWS OF PROPAGATION. 31 

well acquainted with the fact, that children resem- 
ble their parents, and that not only in their persons, 
but also in their dispositions and talents. Some- 
times the resemblance is very close ; at other times 
it is less so. Some children resemble their father 
most strongly, others their mother; and some ex- 
hibit a mixture of both. There are instances, too, 
in which children do not resemble either parent. 
But where family pictures have been preserved, the 
likeness to a remote ancestor, either of father or 
mother, is often found. Talents sometimes disap- 
pear for a generation or two, and are again seen in 
a succeeding" one. Disease also descends from pa- 
rents to children, and becomes hereditary. Nor is 
this transmission of qualities confined to human 
beings. It is observed in all organized nature ; and 
it is lamentable to have it to say, that, while ad- 
vantage is taken of the laws of propagation to im- 
prove other beings, Man has neglected to take ad- 
vantage of them for the improvement of his own 
race. Is any one fond of the pursuits of horticul- 
ture ? In that case, does he not select seeds from 
the most robust and perfect plants, and not from 
the stinted and sickly ? When he is about to sow 
the seed, does he not take care that the soil into 
which it is to be dropped is fitted to nourish the 
plant, so as to render it robust and well shaped ? 
When he desires to propagate a particular variety 
of fruit, does he not select the graft or bud from a 
tree in its full and mature vigour, and avoid one that 
is cankered ? In this way we improve the produc- 
tions of the vegetable kingdom, and prevent them 
from degenerating. Is any one a farmer and 



32 INSTINCT AND LAWS OF PROPAGATION. 

breeder of animals — any one a sportsman who de- 
sires good qualities in horses or dogs ? Why, the 
most ordinary country clown can tell, that, by se- 
lecting certain animals for breeding, that possess 
certain desirable qualities, those qualities descend 
to their offspring. Those who are curious in horses 
are for ever talking of blood and bone; and to ob- 
tain them they make use of the laws of propagation. 
So does the shooter who desires dogs that are active, 
steady, and acute in the sense of smell. Farmers, 
by attention to the law of Nature, have succeeded, 
not merely in giving improved shape to this or that 
point in a sheep or a cow, but have actually pro- 
duced races entirely new, and possessing all the 
qualities desired. Nay, so very much are the laws 
of propagation under our control, that an English 
gentleman, Colonel Humphries, succeeded in pro- 
ducing a race of sheep with deformed bones. The 
fact that these laws affect man equally with the in- 
ferior animals, has long been known to him ; and 
yet how strange it is that he should bestow more 
attention and care on the qualities of his cattle, 
sheep, dogs, horses, and other creatures, than on 
those of his own offspring: Man falls in love with 
a woman, and neither of them consider, (perhaps 
they may be ignorant of the fact), that one or both 
of their parents were diseased ; but even with their 
eyes open, and with imperfection or disease belong- 
ing to their own bodies, they think only of their own 
gratification, are joined in wedlock, and produce 
unhealthy children, whose sufferings and death se- 
verely punish the inconsiderate selfishness of their 
parents. That men wilfully err in this matter is, 



INSTINCT AND LAWS OF PROPAGATION. 33 

we fear, true, since the laws of propagation are not 
wholly unknown. It is no uncommon phrase for a 
parent to use when a son is desirous to marry, See 
that you take a bird out of a good nest. This is a 
sound advice; for a bird may be beautiful, and to 
all appearance healthy, and yet the seed of disease 
may have been planted to produce most bitter fruit. 
Not only is the bird to be regarded, but the nest ; 
and here philosophy breaks out, as indeed it always 
does, from common sense. The parents ought to 
tell the young woman whether there is a valid rea- 
son for her declining to marry, and the young man 
ought to inquire of them beforehand if any such rea- 
son exists, and if they be honest they will tell the 
truth. But, alas ! mothers seem to leave all honour- 
able feeling aside — their sole object, their active oc- 
cupation, at least in those regions of society where, 
if education were improved, we might look for bet- 
ter things, is to get their daughters married. It is 
enough if they be married, still better if to a rich 
or titled man. If he has injured his constitution 
by dissipation, if he belongs to a family in which 
hereditary disease is known to exist, all is disre- 
garded, and — O miserable infatuation ! — the delight 
of the mother is centred in the mere settlement of 
her devoted daughter, whose ambition to be married 
has been sedulously educated- — who has been ren- 
dered accomplished that the ambition may be sub- 
served — while truth and every distinctive feeling 
of humanity has been repressed. It is nothing that 
scrofula, consumption, epilepsy, insanity, which are 
known to descend in families, stare the parent in 
the face — it is enough that she has got for her 



34 INSTINCT AND LAWS OF PROPAGATION. 

daughter a good match. In forming matrimonial 
alliances, it ought ever to be regarded as the duty 
of both parties to take every precautionary means 
to ascertain whether they run any risk of produc- 
ing children that are likely to be unhealthy and ill 
formed. Every well -constituted mind will reflect 
on so important a subject, and even selfish motives 
may act in preventing what must be termed sinful 
alliances. 

But we must not overlook that the laws of propa- 
gation extend to the brain ; and no one who acquires 
a knowledge of them can be indifferent as to the 
mental qualities of his progeny. It is no doubt true, 
that men of powerful minds have sometimes but ill- 
endowed children ; but this is no sound objection 
against doing all we can to render our children as 
good, and better than ourselves. It appears certain 
that it is an ordinance of God, that men and women' 
should differ among themselves in the amount of 
talent and variety of disposition. Without such dif- 
ference and variety, it is clear that society could not 
subsist. Were all of us possessed of a tendency to 
pursue the same objects ; were all of us to see truth 
at once, and instantaneously to agree in opinion ; 
had none of us any thing new to communicate to 
our fellows for their instruction and benefit, — society 
would be vapid and heartless. But let it be kept 
in mind, that, while talent and dispositions seem 
destined continually to vary among individuals, 
their amount may be increased, and their power 
augmented, by attention to the laws of propagation, 
with the view to preserve health, and to promote 
the vigorous growth of our organization. |s it not 



INSTINCT AND LAWS OF PROPAGATION. 35 

a worthy indulgence to look into futurity, and ima- 
gine that a day may come when the least endowed 
among mankind shall equal the greatest that yet 
have lived, and that others shall excel them in the 
proportion now subsisting between the greatest and 
the least ? We have lived to see the larger brain 
of Europe pushing aside the smaller brains of other 
and greater divisions of the earth, and carrying its 
philosophy and its arts to spread them over the 
globe. Improvement is the destiny of the human 
race. 

There exist reasons why men of talent and science 
should not have children of minds as powerful as 
their own, and these reasons in perfect accordance 
with the laws of propagation. Their studies are 
carried on, owing to the fascination attendant on 
the prospect of discovery, till their nervous energies 
become comparatively exhausted. If in this state 
they marry, their children will pay the penalty. 
There is another cause that men of great talent may, 
equally with others, disregard the laws of propaga- 
tion, and unite themselves to a partner of inferior 
abilities. The laws of propagation tell us, that as 
much attention should be paid to the female as to 
the male; and it is a well-known fact, that most 
men of great powers have derived them from their 
mothers. Among other considerations connected 
with this subject, is the age at which it is most pro- 
per to marry, with the view to the health both of 
parents and children. The civil law permits mar- 
riage at too early an age ; and it should not be al- 
lowed before the mental faculties are fully developed, 
the brain having reached its full size. 



36 INSTINCT AND LAWS OF PROPAGATION. 

Degeneration as well as improvement seems to 
depend on general laws, and to belong to those of 
propagation. Though the influence of propagation 
is greatest, a variety of circumstances tend to injure 
the constitution of animals. What is called breed- 
ing in and in contributes to this ; and to prevent or 
remedy degeneration, recourse is had to crossing the 
breed. Families which intermarry too closely de- 
generate ; and hence the Mosaic Law forbids mar- 
riages within certain degrees. That law, or cus- 
tom, which prevents royal families from intermarry- 
ing with subjects is mischievous to a great degree ; 
and in them its degenerating effects are seen, in the 
tendency to immoral conduct, in disease, in want 
of capacity, and in insanity. The same holds good 
among the aristocracy ; and it would be well if the 
lords of the creation would believe, that beauty, 
healthiness, talent, and merit, do not exclusively be- 
long to exclusive society. This subject is, however, 
too extensive to be followed out in this brief sum- 
mary. 

LOVE OF OFFSPRING. 

The next faculty, the love and protection of chil- 
dren, is a necessary one when children are produced. 
This feeling does not depend on reason any more 
than the first. In the lower animals it is easily ob- 
served. It excites courage even in the most timid 
of them, and they will die in defence of their young. 
Equally prominent we find it in the human race. 
It also depends for its energy on the development 
bf its organ in the brain. When the organ is small, 



LOVE OF OFFSPRING. , 37 

the manifestations are weak ; and persons are fre- 
quently met with who dislike children so much as 
to be uneasy in their presence. It will never be 
found small in those who take pleasure in the so- 
ciety of young* persons, and in amusing them. This 
feeling may be abused, and hence it requires educa- 
tion, to prevent its running to excess. In such a 
state it leads to the over-indulgence of children, so 
as to nurse their passions and destroy their health. 
It is not very uncommon for a child, of not many 
months old, when thwarted, to strike its mother or 
its nurse. Ignorant that education must begin as 
soon as such things are observed, the mother calls 
on those around to admire the spirit of the babe, 
little dreaming that this spirit may one day be 
abused. Nature teaches a child to cry when it is 
hungry, and the signal is readily obeyed. But if 
caution be not exercised, and reason be not called in 
to repress the feeling we are considering, the cry 
for mere gratification will be mistaken for that of 
necessity, and the child will ere long obtain the com- 
plete mastery. Indulgence promotes the abuse of 
the faculties in the child, and many a one has lived 
to curse the hour when he was indulged. The 
feeling, in its due exercise, is necessary and good. 
When it is felt to be too powerful, it is virtue to 
keep it within due bounds. Females have this feel- 
ing to a much greater degree than men. Even in 
childhood, it is evinced in the care of dolls. Women 
who have no family are often observed to expend 
this feeling on dogs, or cats, or birds. It is wrong 
to ridicule this, for it is only an innocent and ami- 
able way of gratifying a feeling which it is not in 



38 CONCENTRATIVENESS. 

their power to indulge according to Nature's ap- 
pointment. It seems to be most powerfully ex- 
cited the more helpless its object ; and it is not im- 
probable that a part of its function is the care of the 
sick and the maimed, — for it is in the sick chamber 
that woman shines, and draws down blessings on 
her head. When it appears weak, it may be exer- 
cised and improved in various ways. But no wo- 
man ought to marry, or be chosen as a partner for 
life, in whom the feeling is not strong, lest the 
family should be neglected. The organ is large, and 
easily observed. 

CONCENTRATIVENESS. 

The next faculty in order is that now named 
Concentrativeness, or the power to bend the ener- 
gies of the other faculties to one object. This was 
at first supposed to be the faculty that leads to the 
habitation of a particular place ; that as it led some 
animals to burrow in the earth, some birds to make 
nests in trees and others on the ground, so it led 
man to attach himself in one case to a mountainous, 
in another to a champagne country, and so forth. 
These functions have been found not to be incom- 
patible, but the reasonings on the subject would lead 
us too far from our present object. 

ATTACHMENT. 

It scarcely needs demonstration, that the next 
faculty exists, that of Adhesiveness or Attachment. 



ANIMAL COURAGE. 39 

This leads to living' in society, to the formation of 
friendships. It extends even to inanimate things. 
It is a faculty to be encouraged, and is scarcely ever 
abused. 



ANIMAL COURAGE. 

The next faculty has been called Combativeness, 
— the disposition to quarrel, to contend, to fight. 
Recently it has been proposed to give it the name 
Opposiveness. Its legitimate function appears to 
be to give courage in self-defence. A desire to fight 
appears to us to be a mixture of animal courage 
with a desire to injure, which belongs to the faculty 
to be next spoken of. The fun in a bit of a fight, 
so much relished by our neighbours in the Green 
Isle, is never complete unless there be some broken 
heads. It is quite true, as they say, it is all for 
love, for there is not often any display of loss of 
temper or of fury, unless when enemies are engaged. 
The bit of fun has no reference to hostility, and the 
pleasure is in the mere fighting. Many a diverting 
story is told of poor Paddy's propensity. There is one, 
which you may have'heard, that illustrates the cool- 
ness with which he goes about to procure his bit of 
fun. A gentleman observed at a fair a man, armed 
with a goodly shilelah, going the outside of a tent, 
and feeling all about it. " What are you after there, 
Paddy ?" said he. " Please your honour," says Pat, 
" I'm feeling for a head." On he went, and found 
a head, to which he forthwith applied his shilelah. 
The owner, as he expected, instantly came forth to 



40 ANIMAL COURAGE. 

demand who had broken his pate. " And wasn't 
it my own self, jewel," says our friend — and to it 
they went. Hearing- the din, others rushed out, till 
the whole fair was in commotion, every one for him- 
self, and hundreds of heads were broken, and all in 
pure love. However much we may be diverted by 
such manifestations, they are clearly a gross abuse 
of a feeling' given to us for most useful purposes. 
Whenever we take a view of the constitution of na- 
ture, we discover that, unless we possessed some 
such feeling as this, we should soon fall a prey to 
attack from other animals as well as man, who is 
so prone to abuse his faculties, and to imitate the 
nature of his inferiors in creation. It gives energy 
and activity in all our undertakings ; and, in moral 
conduct, enables us to resist temptation to do what 
is wrong. Dangers and difficulties which appal 
those who are little endowed with it, vanish before 
courage. In this world we have to contend against 
prejudice and hostile power, and to resist every en- 
croachment upon liberty. Being thus of great value 
when not in excess, it becomes all who are engaged 
in educating the young to watch its manifestations, 
to guide them, and repress them when necessary. 
Its abuses are not confined to fighting without cause. 
They extend to contradiction, arguing against con- 
viction, and in a disposition to disagree with others 
when no cause for difference exists. Persons of this 
stamp are constantly met with ; and nothing is 
better known, or more thoroughly disliked, than the 
spirit of contradiction. Such persons, however, are 
not difficult to manage. If we desire to gain a 
point with them, we have only to announce on opi- 



ANIMAL COURAGE. 41 

nion different from our own, and they are sure to go 
our way. In many children, the spirit of contradic- 
tion shews itself at an early period. To every thing 
they say, No. This early indication cannot be 
resisted by reasoning- or warning- ; yet education 
must not be neglected, and the best way to proceed 
may, perhaps, be to say no in return when any de- 
sire is evinced. But mothers are very averse to do 
this, and incline rather to indulge their own love of 
offspring-; and nurses are apt to indulge to save 
themselves annoyance and trouble. Seeing, how- 
ever, that such a faculty does exist in the human 
constitution, and the dangers of abuse, both to the 
beloved object and to others, mothers are bound to 
act as guardians, and in doing so they are safe, be- 
cause they act on a principle founded in nature. 
And they owe a debt to society likewise, which ex- 
pects them to do their duty. When the organ of 
this feeling is over-excited by disease, the insanity, 
especially when the next faculty to be mentioned is 
powerful, is dreadful. 



PESTRUCTIVENESS. 

There may be some whose nature is so mild, that 
they may shudder and feel incredulous when it is 
announced that there is such a faculty in human na- 
ture as one that gives an impulse to destroy. A little 
observation will, however, satisfy us on this point. 
We have only to look abroad upon Nature, and we see 
that it is altogether based in a system of destruction 
and renovation. Neither the great globe itself, nor 



42 DESTRUCTIVENESS. 

any thing- in the land or in the water, is exempt 
from its laws. One generation cometh, another pass- 
eth away. It is so ordered that no organized being- 
can live without taking- organized matter as sus- 
tenance, and that'cannot be done without one living 
thing- putting another to death. The vegetable 
world could not long endure without a supply of 
dead organized matter. Some of the lower animals 
destroy other animals for food, some destroy vege- 
tables; man destroys both. Without an impulse or 
instinct to destroy, man could not support life, and 
he destroys accordingly. In civilized society this 
impulse is greatly subdued by the existence of the 
professions of butchers and cooks. It is only those in 
whom the impulse is strong who betake themselves 
to the profession of butchers, and such persons too 
often abuse the feeling in acts of unnecessary 
cruelty. The profession is a most useful one, and is 
not, as many conceive, necessarily an inhumane 
one. You may have heard of the answer of a butcher 
to a lady who found him in the act of killing a 
lamb, and who reproached him for his cruelty. 
What ! said he to her, would you eat the lamb alive ? 
The lady would never have thought of refusing to 
eat a slice of delicate roasted lamb, but want of ob- 
servation and reflection led her to reproach the 
butcher. Such is the state of education, that ladies 
as well as others are left in the dark concerning the 
laws of Nature, and the institutions of their Maker, 
in which their interest and happiness are so deeply 
involved. 

Besides destruction for the purpose of sustaining 
life, the impulse is of great importance in other 



DESTRUCT1VENESS. 43 

things. For example, a benevolent surgeon could 
not perform an operation steadily without a consi- 
derable endowment of it. All persons who work 
with edge tools destroy a great deal, in order to 
bring- materials into shape. We destroy coals to 
obtain heat, and we apply heat to destroy other 
thing-s for our use and comfort. A thousand exam- 
ples might be given. The abuses of this propensity 
lead to great evils ; and it is only when these hap- 
pen that we presume to question the benevolence 
of the Creator, when we have ourselves alone to 
blame. Many institutions of Nature seem contrary 
to benevolence ; but only seem : for when we attend 
to what passes around us, we see so much benevo- 
lence, that we may rest assured, when we incline 
to impeach the Creator, it is in ignorance we do so. 
Our duty is — not to abuse His bounty, aiid thus we 
shall be safe. We owe much of the abuse of this 
faculty to not educating it early, and promoting 
the development of its antagonist faculty — that of 
Benevolence. Children are prone to destroy insects, 
and to break various articles, and nothing is done 
to lessen this inclination, because it is not known 
to be capable of education, and because the love of 
offspring is too much indulged. From the predo- 
minance of this faculty proceed anger, ill temper, 
rage. Excited by disease, and in a state of insani- 
ty, it is most formidable. So little pains are taken 
to repress this feeling within due bounds, and yet 
so annoyed is society by its manifestations, that a 
multitude of terms are employed to express the an- 
noyance that is felt. A man is said to be harsh, 
passionate, cruel, severe, fierce, ferocious, savage, 



44 SECRETIVENESS. 

brutal, and so forth ; and the words beat, bruise, 
cut, smash, torture, lash, whip, tear, stab, kill, &c. 
express the acts. It would be better had we less 
occasion to use such terms ; and early training is 
the only method to lessen their amount, until, by 
attention to the laws of propagation, children come 
to have better proportioned brains. 



SECRETIVENESS. 

The next faculty has received the name Secretive- 
ness, or the instinct to conceal. This faculty is a 
most important and useful one, while its abuse leads 
to evil as well as the abuse of any of the gifts of 
God. The knowledge of the existence of a faculty 
is, however, the first step, before we can by educa- 
tion guard against its abuse s This one seems to 
have been appointed as a guard, to prevent the im- 
proper expression of the other faculties. Every one 
knows the mischiefs to society that arise from an 
unbridled tongue. How could we confide in a 
friend, if that friend could not keep to himself that 
which we entrust to him ? The very term friend- 
ship implies the possession of such a faculty ; and 
the words confidence and fidelity would be useless 
did it not exist. Thoughts arise, unbidden, to which 
it would be improper to give utterance, both because 
injury to ourselves and injury to others might be 
the consequence. Hence there can be no doubt of 
the existence of this power of the mind ; and that it 
requires early and sedulous education is made 
equally certain by its abuses. Cunning is a quality 



SECRETIVENESS. 45 

which all moral men detest, and it is an abuse of 
this faculty. It is too often mistaken for wisdom ; 
and a cunning- rogue is too often esteemed an able 
man. When this faculty is employed to b^ing about 
a laudable end, and when it requires no immoral 
action, it is in some degree cunning ; but this word 
is commonly applied to the compassing of ends by 
improper means, suggested by this and other facul- 
ties. Lord Bacon wrote on the subject of Cunning : 
" We take cunning," says he, " for a sinister or 
crooked wisdom ; and certainly there is a great dif- 
ference between a cunning man and a wise man, 
not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability. 
There be some that can pack the cards, and yet 
cannot play them ; so there are some that are good 
in canvasses and factions that are otherwise very 
weak men !" As there are unprincipled beings in 
society who are ready to take advantage of their 
neighbours, it would lead to most deplorable conse- 
quences had we not the power to counteract their 
designs. It would be quite intolerable to every 
well-constituted mind, were thoughts to be uttered 
in society as they arise ; and hence, as thoughts do 
arise, even in well-constituted minds, which they 
are aware would give offence if expressed, or inflict 
injury, this power is given to repress them. Its 
abuse also extends to injurious expression of things 
invented, and which are not true. Joined to other 
feelings, which perhaps can find gratification in no 
other way, and are unrestrained by moral sense, 
this faculty in excess leads to the utterance of lies ; 
and such lies are quickly propagated through the 
instrumentality of weak minds, which are gratified 



46 ACQUISITIVENESS. 

by having- something- to tell which another person 
does not know, while, at the same time, they believe 
what they tell to be true, though they sear their 
consciences to the injuries they inflict. 

The actions arising from this faculty, either well 
or ill applied, mig-ht be illustrated at great length ; 
and some of its manifestations are ludicrous, some 
hateful, some melancholy. Its uses are innumera- 
ble to the artist, the actor, the soldier, the poet ; 
and, in short, wherever desig-n is implied. Its 
abuses are found in cunning-, duplicity, deceit, and 
hypocrisy ; and this is enough to lead to care in the 
training- of the youthful mind. Not that it is to be 
wholly repressed, as is most absurdly attempted 
with many faculties by unenlightened teachers, but 
simply regulated into submission to the moral feel- 
ing's. 

ACQUISITIVENESS. 

The next faculty is the propensity to acquire or 
accumulate. That such a propensity exists is evi- 
dent, more, perhaps, in its abuses than in the legi- 
timate purposes for which the Creator intended it. 
He has given us nothing that is in itself evil ; it is 
we that bring evil on ourselves, by abusing God's 
gifts, and neglecting to guard our children against 
abusing them. The use of this faculty is to prompt 
us to provide for the wants of ourselves and families, 
to gain the means of enjoying superfluities, in the 
production of which others are employed, and who 
thus reap advantage from the accumulation of capi- 
tal. When we have more than supplies our wants, 



ACQUISITIVENESS. 47 

when our labour yields more, then we have wealth ; 
and this wealth is distributed to others who labour ; 
and industry being- excited, more and more capital is 
accumulated, till at length a whole nation becomes 
wealthy. Society, indeed, could not exist but for 
the impulse given by this faculty. Various are its 
abuses. Those who covet what belongs to others, 
who accumulate wealth and hoard it, so as to ren- 
der it useless, abuse the power. The crime of theft 
is prompted by it : but thieves are generally idlers, 
who will not take the trouble to earn what they need, 
or who have dissipated what they may have had. 
The disposition to possess is often so strong- in those 
who have abundance, as to take the form of insa- 
nity. Such persons steal from the mere love of steal- 
ing, and many such restore the stolen articles. An 
English lady of rank was known to pocket every 
thing she could come at, and her maid regularly 
searched her pockets that the things she took might 
be restored. Some children are observed to be 
greedy, and on the watch to snatch at whatever may 
be offered to them, unwilling to part with what they 
have, and never to give a share to their playfellows. 
Such should be made to understand how unamiable 
this is, and their better feelings should be encourag- 
ed, with the view to repress it. Such children are 
born with the organ of this faculty in an undue pro- 
portion, and Phrenology is a great help to discover 
the predominant feelings, so as to put the trainers 
of youth upon their guard, and to shew them where 
to apply their strongest efforts. There is no doubt 
that during early life certain organs may be repress- 
ed in growth by want of exercise, and others cul- 



48 CONSTRUCTIVENESS. 

tivated by having- it. An infant school, directed by a 
sensible teacher who is master of Phrenology, is the 
scene for this, and is invaluable to society ; and it 
were well that infant-school teachers were encour- 
aged by better remuneration than what they now 
receive. We do not scruple to say that one teacher 
of an infant-school, properly endowed by nature, and 
qualified by his own industry^ is worth to society a 
thousand of those expensive masters who teach mere 
accomplishments. 



CONSTRUCTIVENESS. 

The last faculty among the propensities is that 
which prompts to construct, and need not detain us 
long". It g'ives facility of executing', but does not 
give the conception of things to be executed. It is 
essential to artists of every description. It may be 
abused in the formation of engines of destruction, 
and in forging coin. A man may ruin himself by 
building houses, and so forth. When manifested 
by children, this faculty should be encouraged by 
directing it to useful objects. 



SELF-ESTEEM. 

We now come to the second genus of feelings, the 
Sentiments. The first of the inferior sentiments 
is Self-Esteem. That this is actually a faculty is 
proved by its different degrees in different persons. 
We often see persons esteeming themselves greatly, 



SELF-ESTEEM. 49 

and holding" their heads very high and stiff, and 
occasionally tossing them, who have no pretensions 
to set themselves above others, either on account of 
superior talent, fortune, or birth. Others we observe, 
who have rank, riches, talents, and accomplish- 
ments, who are equally remarkable for modesty of 
carriage. A moderate endowment of this faculty 
gives dignity of deportment and nobleness of cha- 
racter. When united to superior sentiments, it in- 
spires self-respect, and tends to prevent descending 
to low and mean actions. Its abuse is seen in 
pride, haughtiness, presumption, forwardness, ar- 
rogance, and insolence ; and these~are often evinced 
when talent and merit of every kind are absent. 
Such abuses, which are most disagreeable and dis- 
gusting in well-regulated society, are to be guarded 
against in the training of the young, among whom 
its first appearance is sometimes very early. No 
one employed to teach should have self-esteem in 
excess. He ought to be able to practise as well as 
to preach. 



LOVE OF APPLAtJSE; 

The next faculty is sometimes mistaken for Self- 
Esteem. It is the Love of Approbation. This is 
generally much stronger in women than in men, and 
is shewn even in early childhood. A vast deal is 
sacrificed to gain applause ; and in mocierate acti- 
vity it is extremely useful. It produces a desire to 
please, and renders us attentive to fame. It ex- 
cites a wish to excel, and produces emulation- 

D 



50 LOVE OF APPLAUSE. 

When things of importance are its object, its mani- 
festation is called Ambition; when it seeks gratifica- 
tion in trifles it is Vanity. There are higher sen- 
timents, to be spoken of afterwards, which lead men 
to do good for its own sake, and the applause of 
their fellow-men cannot fail to add to their grati- 
fication, though to acquire it will not be their mo- 
tive. It is so feeble in some individuals, that they 
become indifferent, and care not whether their ac- 
tions be approved or condemned, and as little for 
the feelings of others. Joined to a large share of 
Self-Esteem, it leads individuals to imagine that 
applause is a debt due to them by the world for 
every action and every word they utter, and thus 
renders them ridiculous in the eyes of others. A 
moderate regard to the opinion and good will of 
others, may be almost said to be the chain which 
binds civilized society together. When strong, this 
feeling tends to keep others in check, the manifesta- 
tions of which would be disagreeable, and rouses 
others into activity that would otherwise sleep. 
Many persons are charitable without any motive 
but to obtain notice, — they sound the trumpet be- 
fore them. Many, who have not talent to perceive 
that the few are in the right, join themselves to the 
multitude who make themselves conspicuous, even 
in folly. Many are religious in their deportment 
and speech, whose hearts are far from God, seeking 
his favour less than the favour of men, joining in 
senseless and hypocritical cabals for the sake of 
distinction; and thus forwarding the secret views 
of men who deceive them, while, if they knew the 
object, they would perhaps condemn it. The inor- 



LOVE OF APPLAUSE. 51 

dinate love of applause leads to great evils, as well 
as to the frivolities of dress and exterior appearance. 
It exposes men to the arts of flattery ; and to sacri- 
fice their fortune in the pursuit of what they imagine 
gives them consequence in the eyes of the public. 
Numbers feed on the ignorance of the public, and, 
instead of teaching them to understand, lead them 
by exciting- their ignorant vanity, and nursing" er- 
roneous notions of truth. Thus, we see that to 
manage this feeling- in the young-, requires very 
great attention in directing them to seek its grati- 
fication only in what is really and substantially 
good and useful. And here we may notice the 
common system of rewards and punishments in the 
management of schools. It is entirely forgotten 
that children by natural constitution differ from each 
other in talents and dispositions. Now, supposing 
two boys or two girls, one of them possessing a good 
memory and the other a bad one, and that both are 
equally endowed with Self-Esteem and Love of Ap- 
probation ; you say to them, Now, children, here is 
a hymn, if you have it by heart in a quarter of an 
hour, you shall go to play, and the one that has it 
first shall have the medal. Here we have the de- 
sire for play and the desire for distinction roused 
into activity in both. But the natural ability of 
the one child enables it to get by heart the hymn 
in ten minutes, and it is sent out to play, with the 
medal dangling by a ribbon round its neck ; while 
the other cannot accomplish the task within the 
prescribed time. Now, while the one is rewarded 
for no merit, but for the result of what Nature gave 
it — for no effort ; the other who, bei ig* less endow- 



52 LOVE OF APPLAUSE. 

ed, actually made the greatest effort ', and deserved 
reward for so doing-, is not only punished by the de- 
privation of play, but its Love of Approbation is 
mortified ; it becomes dispirited and careless, and 
in future ceases to make those efforts by which the 
memory would be improved. Thus the greatest 
injustice is inflicted upon the individual who really 
merited reward, and much injury *n reference to 
its future progress. We can speak on this subject 
as we feel ; for in this manner we were treated dur- 
ing the most precious years of our life ; and were 
we now to attempt to compete with some children 
at school in getting tasks by heart, we should not 
only not gain a medal, but probably receive a sound 
whipping. We have witnessed some horrible in- 
stances of the utter ignorance of human nature 
evinced by teachers, who, with the rest of the world 
at the time, and most of it at the present day, be- 
lieve man to be a sheet of white paper, on which 
any thing may be written, or a lump of plastic clay, 
on which any shape may be moulded they may take 
a fancy to. The love of approbation is a powerful 
motive to work upon, and would be of most essen- 
tial service in educating other faculties if properly 
managed. In the ordinary mode of management 
it is, in fact, employed either to be itself nursed into 
sheer vanity, and to minister to pride, or mortified 
so as to quell all useful exertion. We would have 
parents and teachers to reflect deeply on this sub- 
ject, and forthwith to proceed to study the true phi- 
losophy of man, which exhibits what he really is, 
and unfolds the mode in which he is to be ma- 
naged. But we must carry the warning farther. 



LOVE OF APPLAUSE. 53 

Mortified Love of Approbation leads to the ex- 
citement of other feelings in the manner of abuse. 
In the first place, dislike to tasks leads directly to 
dislike of the task-master ; and Destructiveness 
longs for revenge, Secretiveness for escape ; and the 
dislike extends to the individual preferred ; and thus 
bad passions are set to work. Nor does the evil 
rest solely upon the one who is unjustly treated and 
mortified. An undue sense of superiority is che- 
rished in the mind of the favoured individual, which 
rouses pride, and a contempt for the unsuccessful 
candidate. Cupidity is also encouraged; and thus 
are excited, by the most direct means, those very 
feelings which parents and teachers are most anxious 
to suppress. It is not always that favoured candi- 
dates at school become distinguished in after life, 
either for attainments or amiable character. The 
errors of education create the wide separation be- 
tween the aristocracy and the people — the mistaken 
and ruinous principle of favoritism. The pride of 
the one, rendered excessive by a system ruinous to 
moral health, denies the right of the other to the 
acquirement of knowledge. The other seeks it for 
itself, discovers that natural endowments are not 
the gift of art ; and not being rightly guided, comes 
to hate and to desire to destroy those who, were 
education placed on a proper footing, would be their 
friends, and their respected and beloved leaders in 
all that is great and worthy. When this shall 
happen, and there is now a prospect before us that 
a system of national education will ere long be 
founded on rational principles, the people will cease 
to listen to itinerant and designing demagogues ; 



54 CAUTIOUSNESS. 

and high and low, rich and poor, will say to each 
other, Are we not men and brethren ? and act ac- 
cordingly, each an honourable part. 



CAUTIOUSNESS. 

The next faculty we have to consider, is that 
which has received the name of Cautiousness, or 
Circumspection ; and it is considered to be the pri- 
mitive feeling which we call Fear. This last might 
be supposed to arise from the absence of Courage. 
But the absence of any faculty cannot produce what 
is a positive feeling. Accordingly we find that the 
most courageous persons are not insensible to the 
presence of danger, or to the risk that may be run 
by performing certain actions. When Cautiousness 
is feeble, it allows courage to prompt rash and in- 
considerate actions ; when powerful, it does not di- 
minish the power to face danger when necessary, 
but says, " Take care how you proceed." Without 
a feeling of this sort, the world would be a scene of 
anarchy; and no man could deem himself safe in 
the society of his fellows. Circumspection leads 
him to consider both what his own conduct should 
be, and what he may expect from others. A small 
proportion of courage, and a great one of Cautious- 
ness, produce cowardice. This fact, therefore, in- 
stead of having permitted the invention of the op- 
probrious epithets, coward and poltroon, should 
lead us to regard an excess of fear as a natural in- 
firmity which nothing can prevent; to be compas- 
sionated, not contemned. It may be a new thing 



CAUTIOUSNESS. 55 

to some of you to know, that a small endowment of 
courage, and a large one of caution, leads, in certain 
circumstances in which an individual maybe placed, 
to suicide. Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation 
being deeply mortified and disappointed, the fear 
of disgrace, and no prospect of recovering station 
or character appearing, and courage not being pre- 
sent to sustain the individual against misfortune, 
he deprives himself of life. This has been ascer- 
tained by many observations. An excess of fear 
may lead to criminal actions in reference to others, 
in order that threatened misfortunes may be avoided. 
It also tends to render life miserable, by leading to 
fear of misfortunes happening which are never to 
come to pass. This feeling is generally stronger in 
childhood than afterwards ; and it is necessary for 
the young while their other faculties are only in 
progress to ripeness, leading them to take care of 
themselves. Children in whom it may not be fully 
developed should not be left to themselves. It is 
too often brought to a morbid state, by mothers, 
nurses, and schoolmasters. To save themselves 
trouble, they excite terror, too often at the expense 
of truth, and nourish that very thing which they 
would be distressed to see displayed in after life, 
namely, cowardice. Teachers of religion are not 
aware of the degree to which they sink human na- 
ture, when they dwell more on the fear of hell than 
on the love of God. If the love of God to us pass- 
eth understanding, surely our love to Him should 
be promoted, as being better calculated to produce 
faith and good works, than terror of His power. It 
is a sad mistake also to make God's word a book of 



50 CAUTIOUSNESS. 

tasks. Some even insist on children getting- portions 
of it by heart by way of punishment. This does 
nothing* but excite a dislike to the Bible, and in 
after life leads to that which is so much dreaded, 
infidelity ; for, when reason comes to be mature, and 
all the youthful misery that was inflicted by Bible 
tasks and punishments is remembered, and when it 
is seen how widely men who profess Christianity 
differ in the meaning- which they attach to various 
parts of its contents, and how bitterly they dispute 
about them, the result is either disregard and indif- 
ference, or a critical examination of doctrines about 
which disputes are carried on, which possibly ends 
in scepticism. Thus, we conceive that the origin 
of not a little of that infidelity, and even heathenism, 
which is so much complained of as having- arisen 
in modern times, is to be found in making- the Bible 
a school-book, and exciting- dislike to it instead of 
affection. This opinion seems to be confirmed by 
the fact, that almost all men who have been most 
disting-uished by their reasoning powers, are those 
against whom the cry of infidelity has been loudest. 
They may be supposed to have seen nothing in the 
disputes of theologians but battles about straws, and 
to have said, " That about which such contentions 
arise cannot be a revelation," and they set aside the 
Bible accordingly. We humbly conceive that Chris- 
tianity will never have its proper effect on the con- 
duct and improvement of mankind, till more wis- 
dom shall be displayed in the mode of teaching it, 
and above all, until religion shall cease to be used 
as a bugbear to excite the fears of children. The 
excitement of such fears lays the foundation of in- 



CAUTIOUSNESS. 57 

sanity ; and we believe that the religiously insane 
exceed in number all others who are in confinement. 
If, on the present occasion, we should have permit- 
ted our own Cautiousness to be so overcome by our 
sense of duty, as to have made us, by these remarks, 
give offence to any one, we shall deeply regret it. 
But we will never conceal our opinion, that the ge- 
nuine object of religious teaching is to amend men's 
conduct, by leading them to obey the Christian 
commands and precepts, which are the will of God. 
If that be not the object, we cannot understand why 
so many commands and precepts having such a 
tendency are contained in the Gospel. That some- 
thing is wrong we are certain ; for our intercourse 
with society has been long enough to prove to us, 
that the commands and precepts of Christ are not 
better attended to now than heretofore, and, per- 
haps, are even more than ever neglected among all 
ranks of society, though the same means of teaching 
Christianity have always existed. We may be wrong 
in attributing this wholly to fault in early educa- 
tion ; but it is doubtless one great cause, and with 
this only we have to do at present. 



BENEVOLENCE. 

We now proceed to consider the superior or Moral 
Sentiments ; and the first of these in order is Bene- 
volence. Men are found to differ in their disposi- 
tion to do kind and charitable actions. Some ap- 
pear to devote their lives to charity, while others 
are selfish and griping. This difference appears in 



58 BENEVOLENCE. 

childhood. Nations differ in this respect. That 
this is an innate faculty is proved also by the ob- 
servation of similar differences among- animals, es- 
pecially dogs. The moral virtue of charity is placed 
above all others by the Christian code. Some mis- 
takingly suppose that it consists in the mere act of 
giving- alms, and contributing to public charitable 
institutions ; and many are induced to give from 
their love of applause, desiring to see their names 
in subscription lists and newspaper paragraphs. 
The innate feeling is directed by the Christian code 
to obey its dictates in secret, and not to let the left 
hand know what the right doeth. Mere ostenta- 
tious gifts cannot therefore be with certainty attri- 
buted to this feeling. It shews itself in many other 
ways. It produces a general kindness of manner, 
a readiness to oblige, and instantaneous desire to 
relieve distress the moment it is presented. It gives 
what is called amiability of character, and g-ood na- 
ture ; and true it is that Charity covereth a multi- 
tude of sins, a text which, we apprehend, by being 
in general most wrongfully interpreted, leads to 
giving with the hand when, as we speak, the heart 
is not concerned. We are apt to overlook many 
faults in persons who are good-natured. How often 
do we hear actions which are condemned softened 
down by the exclamation, " O, but he is one of the 
best-natured fellows in the world." Now, it is in 
this sense we would interpret the text, that charity 
covers or conceals a multitude of sins, but by no 
means secures their forgiveness. Yet we have 
heard the forgiveness, or absolution, often preached 
when charity was recommended ; and many good 



BENEVOLENCE. 59 

people, who would otherwise keep their money to 
themselves, are induced to give, by the idea that 
they thus purchase indulgence and pardon, — a doc- 
trine savouring very much of one sad and gross er- 
ror of the Roman church, which has most effectual- 
ly misinterpreted the text to enrich itself, while we 
seem to do so for the better purpose of doing good 
to our fellow-creatures, but from a wrong motive. 
Elevating and delightful as the exercise of this di- 
vine sentiment is, it nevertheless requires educa- 
tion. However beautiful it is in all its forms of 
goodness and mercy, in man it is sometimes too 
strong, sometimes too weak. In the latter case it 
requires encouragement, in the former regulation. 
When too strong it leads to indiscriminate alms- 
giving, and thus runs the risk of administering to 
the dissoluteness of the reckless, and the depravity 
of the wicked. Joined to a high degree of Love of 
Approbation, it tends to extravagance and waste, 
and to the ruin of fortune, becoming a prey to the 
cunning. It cannot resist tales of distress, real or 
untrue. It becomes, in short, a ! dupe to every 
scheme pretending- to be for the good of our fellow- 
creatures in any shape, whether such schemes have 
been well digested and reasonable, or not. If one- 
half of the misery and ignorance of our own coun- 
trymen were known to our charitable folk, not a 
tithe of the money that goes to foreign purposes, 
and which is seldom or ever accounted for by the 
itinerants who collect it, would go to such a desti- 
nation ; for it should be considered as a duty en- 
joined by the Christian code, first to provide for 
our own. It is therefore a proper saying, that cha- 



60 VENERATION. 

rity begins at home, though it be sometimes applied 
ironically. When the feeling- is strong, it should 
be led under the dominion of reflection, and the 
sentiment of Justice, to be afterwards treated of. 
When weak, it should be sedulously exercised by 
practice, for preaching alone will do little to en- 
courage it. 



VENERATION. 

The next faculty has been named that of Venera- 
tion. In connection with others, it produces reli- 
gious feelings, but by itself gives simply the ten- 
dency to venerate and respect superiority in gene- 
ral. It leads up to God; but it inspires respect 
also for power and worth, and likewise for what 
is ancient, and, what has been mentioned formerly, 
the wisdom of our ancestors. Many persons col- 
lect antiquities merely because they are so, and 
without any regard to their use in elucidating his- 
tory. 

It may be as well here to depart from the usual 
arrangement of the Faculties, and to consider those 
the combined action of which produces the religious 
character. Ail nations and tribes have been found 
to have some sort of religion. Some propitiate only 
the good, others only the evil spirit. Some worship 
the heavenly bodies, others graven images. The 
religious sentiment is universal, and is an innate 
part of the human constitution, from which it can- 
not be eradicated by human means. 



WONDER. 61 



WONDER. 



It is evident that, to constitute what is meant by 
the term religious feeling-, there must be something 
more than mere veneration. There must be some- 
thing that raises this to a supreme degree. Hence 
we find, in the human constitution, a feeling that 
leads to a desire for what is wonderful, surprising, 
marvellous, and out of the common course of nature. 
Whenever we begin to study the book of Nature, we 
at once perceive the result of power and intelligence, 
far beyond any thing manifested by our own race ; 
and we are led irresistibly to a great First Cause. 
Man, however, being fond of seeing causes, has, in 
his ignorance, supposed that this power resided in 
the heavenly bodies; or, having once made for him- 
self representations of an unseen power, he has 
come to the absurd belief that the images were ac- 
tually the beings who were worshipped, and here is 
the origin of idolatry. Many persons shew a great 
fondness for tales of wonder. They are inclined to 
give faith to dreams, and to believe in magic, witch- 
craft, and in every kind of mystery. Miracles and 
prophecies, whether true or false, find in this feel- 
ing a ready listener ; and it leads, when powerful 
or ill-regulated, to superstition in all its degrading 
forms, — distorting true religion ; to which, never- 
theless, it is, in its moderate state, essential. When 
the organ of this faculty of Marvellousness or Won- 
der is diseased, a most melancholy insanity is the 
consequence. Legislators of all ages, aware of the 
influence of this feeling, have made use of it to en- 



62 WONDER. 

force their laws, by speaking in the name of the 
Deity or other supernatural powers. In our own day, 
many religious sects exhibit its inordinate action. 
While, therefore, a moderate endowment of this fa- 
culty is essential to the feeling of dependence on 
unseen power, too much of it leads to every kind of 
irrational superstition, and too little renders re- 
ligious feeling weak. Accordingly, it has been ob- 
served that some persons are rationally religious, 
that others carry religion into every thing so as to 
annoy and disturb society, and others, again, create 
disturbance and produce uneasiness to their neigh- 
bours, by laughing at and mocking the expression 
of their feelings. Seeing, then, that men become 
superstitious from an excess of a feeling implanted 
in their natural constitution, — that the same cause 
in "moderation produces calm and sober worship, — 
and that, when there is a low endowment, there is 
so little of this feeling as to lead to its being con- 
temned in others, we have at once the best possible 
reason for warring with intolerance, and rousing 
benevolence. Let us reflect, that we cannot help 
having the feelings which the Creator has himself 
implanted in us, and that we ought to bear with 
what we may consider as the failings of others. It 
is unchristian to believe, as many do, that different 
religious denominations are insincere in their pro- 
fessions. It is true that priests, who in all times 
have unhappily evinced an inordinate love of power, 
have turned this feeling into a tool for unhallowed 
ends. By nourishing it with great assiduity, the 
priests of Rome enriched themselves by destroying 
the minds of the people; first leading them to be- 



WONDER. 63 

lieve what was irrational, and then contriving, by 
a skilful management, to induce men to sin, with the 
view to levy money to subserve their own guilt. But 
it would be an error to suppose that, even in the cor- 
rupted mass of the Roman system, there were no sin- 
cere men. It is just as true that there are insincere 
men among all sects, as that they exist among the 
Roman Catholics. To make religion an engine of 
temporal power, or a means to gratify selfishness in 
any way, whether in the shape of the creed of one sect 
or another, appears to he a monstrous perversion of it. 
But we need say no more to satisfy you that that 
faculty, which designing men may direct to abuse, 
requires most careful nurture. As far as our own 
observation has gone, it appears the most apt to 
run into excess of almost all the faculties ; and 
when once it gains ascendency, no power of reason- 
ing can bring it back to the rational homage due to 
the Great Author of our being. Even well mean- 
ing men, when they have this faculty in excess, do 
infinite mischief, by their exertions to bring the 
minds of others into the same state. We will not, 
however, dwell on this melancholy subject ; but 
only add, that, while the mass of the people is kept 
in ignorance, — while the knowledge of God's works, 
in which he is manifested, is hidden from them, 
they will be ever exposed to the notion that, if they 
go through certain ceremonies, they may gratify 
their desires in whatever way they like ; and it is 
too common, even in this country, to see a man in 
church on Sunday, who will steal your goods on 
Monday, get drunk on Tuesday, and tell falsehoods 
every day, This is the usual result of ignorance 



64 HOPE. 

and superstition ; and until knowledge shall be sent 
widely amongst the people, their reign will conti- 
nue undisturbed. No other method has yet suc- 
ceeded any where, and it is time it should be tried. 
But there is yet another faculty that has a great 
share in exciting- religious feeling, and is one of the 
greatest blessings we have received. 



HOPE. 

This is the feeling of Hope, which, it has been 
well observed, is necessary to the happiness of man 
in every situation. 

O blessed Hope, that sets the captive free, 
While fetters bind his limbs— who to the sick 
Shews rosy health, and riches to the poor ! 

Its existence as a primitive innate faculty seems 
quite evident. In different individuals it operates 
with more or less energy, according to the size of 
its organ. Some are very easily thrown into a state 
of despair, while, under similar circumstances, 
others are cheerful, and continue to look to an end 
of their troubles, and the accomplishment of their 
wishes. When excessively active, it leads to the 
most unfounded expectations, even to desire what 
is impossible. It is the excessive energy of this 
faculty that leads to what is called building castles 
in the air. When treble, and when Cautiousness 
is powerful, low spirits, melancholy, and despair 
result, whenever any desire is thwarted. Hope 
leads to the belief, that whatever any other faculty 
desires may be obtained. It sometimes leads to 



HOPE. 65 

indolence and carelessness, from the idea that things 
will come round of themselves. The operation of 
hope, however, is not limited to the affairs of this 
world ; for it expands its wings for a flight to an- 
other region, believing and resting in the sure pro- 
mise of Christianity, that there is another and a bet- 
ter state of existence. Hope is desirable ; but there 
is nothing more dangerous to an individual than a 
disposition to be credulous. An excess of the feel- 
ing of Wonder leads to this in one way, and that of 
Hope in another ; and when both feelings are strong", 
credulity is the more easily imposed upon. Hence 
it is of importance to regulate them both in early 
life, lest, on the one hand, the individual should fall 
a prey to designing men, or, on the other, injure his 
prospects by trusting to improbable events ; or, 
overwhelmed by both, destroy his own peace of 
mind, and disturb that of others. 

We can now see how the religious feeling, pro- 
perly so called, is produced. The feeling' of Won 
der leads to the conviction of unseen power ; and 
this is a strong argument for the existence of a Su- 
preme being ; Veneration leads to the adoration of 
that power ; and Hope fills the mind with confidence 
in the object of veneration fulfilling all our reason- 
able desires, even to the enjoyment of eternal hap- 
piness, if we exert ourselves to discover his laws, and 
to obey them. The existence of an innate faculty 
of Hope is a strong proof of a future state of exist- 
ence. For as we cannot think of the Creator other- 
wise than as of a perfectly Benevolent Being, we 
must conclude that, if there was to be no such state, 
He would not have permitted us to hope for it. 



66 JUSTICE. 

We now also see why, when well regulated, the 
faculties of Wonder, Hope, and Benevolence, are 
held up by high authority as feelings to be anxious- 
ly cultivated ; for it is they who produce faith, hope, 
and charity. The more we inquire into and study 
our own nature, the more clearly are we satisfied 
that the Christian morality is not, as too many are 
apt to think, too elevated for human nature. The 
Creator has implanted in us such powers as, when 
duly cultivated and regulated, lead us to believe it 
to be no chimera that man may, and indeed will, 
improve himself, till at last the kingdoms of this 
world shall merge into one great and uniformly 
moral and religious family. 



JUSTICE. 

The next faculty we propose to consider is the 
sense of right and wrong, of justice, or, as it has 
been named, conscientiousness. This faculty does 
not discover to us what is right or what is wrong, 
which is the province of other faculties, or rather 
of a combination of them ; but when once that 
which is right is determined, this feeling binds us 
to prefer what is right. He who has more of the 
lower propensities than of Benevolence and Vtnera- 
tion, will call that just which a person with the en- 
dowment reversed will call unjust. It is said in the 
book of Proverbs, — " Every way of a man is clean 
in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the heart." 
Instances have been known of criminals robbing 
the rich and giving to the poor, and such individuals 



JUSTICE. 67 

will justify their actions. The combination of the 
other faculties with Conscientiousness, accounts for 
the various principles which regulate the enactment 
of laws, and the degrees of punishment awarded to 
their infraction. Few will maintain that the inflic- 
tion of bodily injury without cause is just. This be- 
ing- determined to be unjust, a proper endowment 
of the faculty of Conscientiousness will prevent us 
from inflicting' injury even to benefit ourselves. A 
man with good Benevolence and Conscientiousness 
may, under the sudden and violent excitement of 
Destructiveness, kill another ; but as passion cools, 
his prevailing character will contradict the act, and 
he will bitterly repent. When Conscientiousness 
and Benevolence are feeble, there will be no repent- 
ance, there can be none. Particular faculties may 
feel disappointment, but repentance is different, — 
it is sorrow for having committed an action which 
we know to be wrong, and this is given by the fa- 
culty now under consideration. From the circum- 
stance that the natural faculties of man have not 
been understood, paid consequently left uncultivated, 
they are less under the guidance of a sense of jus- 
tice than they ought to be ; they think more of them 
selves than of others. Therefore, as there are so 
few who, in the words of the Apostle, are a law unto 
themselves, it has become necessary not to trust to 
the conscience of men, but to enact laws, which de- 
termine what justice is, and to enforce it. Laws, 
however, are too often founded on what our moral 
feelings, when consulted, condemn as erroneous prin- 
ciples. Men differing in mental constitution differ 



68 JUSTICE. 

on such points, and debates ensue. As it is neces- 
sary to legislate, the majority is allowed to do so. 
When once law is established, then Conscientious- 
ness condemns its infraction, although reason may 
tell us that the law is imperfect, or even unjust in 
its operation. It is to be feared that many ages 
must pass away before the law will be unnecessary, 
but it is our duty to hasten the blessed time, if it be 
destined ever to come. It is a lamentable, but an 
unquestionable fact, that this important faculty is 
far oftener found deficient than any other. Selfish- 
ness is the ruling principle of action, and conscience 
is allowed to sleep, and is not so often nor so easily 
pricked as many are inclined to believe. It is true 
that a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit ; 
and, as St Paul says, " the natural man receives 
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are 
foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned." If, then? 
we see it is necessary to cultivate that by which 
men may come to discern what is just and right, 
let us no longer neglect the study of man's nature, 
and the cultivation of this faculty, which is so low 
in the race at present. Children, before they are 
educated, shew great differences in reference to this 
faculty of Conscientiousness. Some of them are 
pleased when justice is spoken of, and others are 
indifferent. In the play-ground of an infant-shool 
(and without an ample space for this such a school 
is useless), these differences soon become visible to 
a master properly endowed with perceptive facul- 
ties ; and a judicious one will know how to proceed 



JUSTICE. 69 

both with precept and example. Every faculty 
improves by exercise, and this is one of infinite im- 
portance to the individual and to society. 

We can now explain how it happens that religion 
and morality are sometimes separated in different 
individuals. A man may feel the religious impulse 
in full force, and yet have but little sense of justice. 
This may assist in explaining- the apparent ano- 
maly of persons assuming the religious habit whose 
lives are by no means exemplary. I fear that what 
we read about priests, monks, and friars, is but too 
true ; and it proves that the one feeling may exist 
without the other, and lead to confidence in cere- 
monies, and forms, and gifts, and penance, for wip- 
ing away sin. Again, a man may have the strong- 
est feelmg of justice, and but little of religion ; such 
persons are also frequently met with- All this, how- 
ever, ought to convince us that it is uncharitable to 
deal in denunciations of such men. All the abuse 
that can be hurled against them is useless. The 
Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard 
his spots. The business of the true Christian is 
not to revile, contrary to the command of his Mas- 
ter, but to exert himself to turn men from the error 
of their ways by every means within his reach ; but 
reviling is not among them. The improvement and 
enlightenment of the understanding, so that it shall 
be our guide, under the control of the moral senti- 
ments, are the legitimate means. We say, under 
the control of the moral sentiments, for without 
this the intellect may be, and too often is, grossly 
misapplied ; while, on the other hand, the senti- 
ments without intellect act blindly. And when the 



70 FIRMNESS. 

nature of man's constitution shall come to be known, 
then not one will be called to teach either divine or 
secular thing's, who is not by nature fitted for the 
important office. We cannot make the branch of a 
tree that has grown crooked grow back into a 
straight line, but if we deal with the sapling it will 
bend to our will. Train up a child in the way he 
should go, and when he is old he will not depart 
from it. How very few have reflected that error is 
perpetuated by ill-directed education, or the neglect 
of it. Do we not know that the Jesuits attended 
to this, and selected their pupils, and twisted their 
growth, to make them as themselves ? Is it not 
known that this means is employed for every trade 
and profession ? and for that of priest also ? Why 
not use it to effect the general improvement of the 
whole of the human constitution, and to render the 
better part of it more fruitful, and the worse part 
barren ? No Jesuits can exist where the people are 
educated and enlightened. All superstition, and 
all immoral religious systems, will vanish, and pure 
Christianity will flourish, undisturbed by sectarian 
spirit. 

FIRMNESS. 

We now come to the faculty which has received 
the name Firmness. It is observed of some persons 
that they are easy to be entreated, that they are 
infirm of purpose, and yielding, and wavering-, and 
unable to come to any determinate resolution. 
Others, again, are found to be the reverse. They 
will not yield to entreaty ; they are fixed to their 



FIRMNESS. 71 

principles, and will not deviate to the right nor to 
the left. They attend to nothing- but the object 
immediately before them, — they are uniform and 
steady in their conduct, and they may be depended 
on when they engage to do any thing, — they are, 
in short, firm. When it is too active, this faculty 
produces stubbornness, infatuation, obstinacy, dis- 
obedience. When a man who has it powerful, and 
Conscientiousness deficient, resolves to attain an 
end by the commission of crime, he will lay his 
plans, and persevere even through adverse circum- 
stances, till his purpose be attained. Such a being, 
especially with much Self-Esteem, will never ac- 
knowledge himself in the wrong ; and if a consider- 
able endowment of Secretiveness be added, he will 
never confess his crime, but declare himself inno- 
cent in the face of the clearest evidence, and persist 
in his declaration. This faculty is of great value 
when within the bounds of moderation, and directed 
to what is useful and praiseworthy. Deficient chil- 
dren should be encouraged to persevere, by shewing 
them some desirable object placed within their reach 
and to be obtained by overcoming obstacles. But 
care must be taken not to set more than one child 
to work for the sake of the same object, for this 
would lead to injustice, by allowing a child well 
endowed to overcome and mortify his weaker school- 
fellow, and retard progress instead of forwarding 
the object in view. A schoolmaster, for example, 
may place an orange within sight, put various ob- 
structions in the road to it, some of which have to 
be scrambled over, some to be crawled under, so 
that the road becomes tortuous, and a stone or 



rZ IDEALITY. 

something else has to be removed, and so on. He 
then selects a persevering child, shews him the 
orange, and tells him he may have it for the trouble 
of taking it, and it will be got at to a certainty. 
But while the persevering child is at work to ob- 
tain the prize, the less persevering should be made 
to look on, and if the master applauds when each 
obstacle is overcome, the others will instinctively 
applaud too, and will regard the affair as diversion. 
Another orange being- placed, a less persevering 
child is to be set to work ; and thus, by gradually 
increasing the difficulties in this and other contri- 
vances, a weak organ will become stronger. The 
example of the well endowed should always be ex-- 
hibited, but never so as to mortify. 



IDEALITY. 

The next faculty to be noticed, is one which you 
may find it more difficult to comprehend than any 
of the preceding-, especially as we wish to compress 
our observations as much as possible ; and our pur- 
pose is chiefly to induce you to go farther, and to 
consult books, and to reflect upon the principles we 
briefly refer to. 

Some persons are called sanguine. Their ideas 
are perpetually running after what ought to be, and 
they cannot rest satisfied with what is. They clothe 
every thing in its fairest suit, and every thing they 
desire to be perfect. They become easily exalted ; 
express themselves warmly, in lofty words, and 
rapturously. All is what we call ideal, — and the 



IDEALITY. 73 

feeling that excites this warmth and enthusiasm 
has been named Ideality. It is the basis of poetry. 
Many who have a full endowment of this, write and 
speak true poetry, though not expressed in verses, or 
aided by the jingle of rhymes. Poets delight in por- 
traying imaginary life and scenery, and this in the 
most florid diction. In them the faculty is strong ; 
but all who have it so are not necessarily poets. 
The faculty exerts its influence on all the other 
powers. A painter endowed with a moderate share 
of it, gives us simply portraits ; with a larger share 
his portraits have a certain air or action in them ; 
and when he is still farther endowed, he becomes an 
historical painter, and his productions partake of 
sublimity. It adds vastly to the power of the musi- 
cian, whether in composition or execution. In short, 
in whichever way the more prominent faculties lead, 
this faculty of Ideality tends to produce enthusiasm. 
It probably constitutes a portion of the religious cha- 
racter. It strikes us, that, since it excites a desire 
for perfection in all things, it leads to the contem- 
plation of the perfection of the Creator in power, 
wisdom, and goodness ; that, in searching into His 
works, it rouses an extraordinary admiration of 
them, and directs us at once to their Author. Many 
view the works of art and of nature with equal in- 
difference, and we conceive that this faculty leads 
to genuine and lively admiration of both. Children 
frequently evince the operation of this faculty with- 
out being educated, though it be not commonly no- 
ticed. Enthusiasm may be carried too far ; and 
looking for what cannot be realized leads to de- 
spondency. It is seldom, however, that this faculty 



74 wit. 

needs to be repressed ; and a strong- endowment of 
it leads to excellence in all the fine and mechanical 
arts. Even in the manufacture of very ordinary 
things, a workman having- a g-ood share of the feel- 
ing-, will give the article a neatness which another 
does not seem to know how to produce. 



WIT. 

A good deal of discussion has arisen in regard to 
the true function of the faculty which was originally 
named Wit. As we understand this word, it is evi- 
dently connected with intellect. A jest is made 
and we laugh, and even those laugh who cannot 
make a jest or say a witty thing. Some, however, 
do not laugh even at great wit. Repartee, and a 
play upon words, require quickness of perception 
and ready expression. There are also what we call 
practical jokes, in which the intellect has no con- 
cern, but which make us laugh notwithstanding. 
Caricatures make us laugh. It is probable that the 
faculty in question gives a disposition to be merry 
without regard to what excites it. Some persons 
can scarcely speak without laughing, and do so 
heartily when there is nothing apparent to excite 
the laugh. The faculty seems to make people in- 
clined to be pleased with every thing; and I am in- 
clined to agree in the name Mirth fulness. Wit, 
which is a word peculiar to the English and Ger- 
man languages, seems to be an effort of intellect 
designed to produce laughter in others. But we 
must not dwell on metaphysical distinctions. You 



IMITATION. 75 

will agree, we doubt not, that some persons are 
more witty than others ; and, therefore, some must 
have a peculiar mental endowment more powerful 
than others. It is a happy disposition, and confers 
much pleasure and amusement when properly di- 
rected. 

IMITATION. 

The exactness with which some persons can imi- 
tate the actions, voice, and mode of expression, of 
others, leads to the supposition that there exists a 
special faculty of Imitation ; and experience has de- 
termined that it does exist. It is more active in 
childhood than in after life, and we observe that 
children learn a great deal by imitation. Those 
who are largely endowed with it use gestures when 
they speak ; and we have seen individuals who 
could not sit still while describing- what they wished 
quietly in words, but got up and exhibited what they 
meant in action. Not only do they imitate their 
fellow-men, but the cries and actions of animals. 
They are fond of acting-, and of dramatic represen- 
tations; but, of itself, the faculty does not consti- 
tute an actor. In combination with other faculties, 
it determines the inclination to act, but the other fa- 
culties determine the line of characters to be acted. 
Actors with a g-oocl power of imitation, often fail 
in attempting- to delineate what they do not feel. 
This faculty does not confine itself to acting-, but to 
the arts. In drawing and sculpture it gives ease 
and expression. That it is useful cannot be doubted, 
since it enables us to avail ourselves of the disco- 



76 IMITATION. 

veries of others, and to attain useful ends by doing 
as others do, and is a source of much pleasure and 
amusement. But this useful faculty may also be 
misapplied and abused. For example, it is abused 
when the failings and infirmities of others are imi- 
tated for the purposes of ridicule and mockery. It 
is also abused when employed to compass immoral 
purposes of any kind. When other faculties are 
well regulated, and the moral influence powerful, 
there is little risk of this being abused. 



We now come to the second division of Faculties, 
the Intellectual. Without their assistance all 
the faculties we have been considering act blindly, 
and from mere impulse, as many of them do in the 
lower creation, and too often are suffered to do so 
in the higher. Unless guided by intelligence, the 
very highest sentiments continually err. It is owing 
to the want of cultivated intellect that the savage 
worships stocks and stones, and multitudes in civi- 
lized countries are led to blind submission to the 
dictates of weak or designing priests. Religious 
despotism interdicts the exercise of reason. Rea- 
son is given by God to mankind, not to be hood- 
winked, but to be employed to draw us nearer to 
Him. Unenlightened obedience is nothing better 
than the obedience of a horse to the bridle, or of 
the dog to the whistle. Nor can the fear of the law 
be an enlightened source of obedience. Neither is 
blind belief, what we can suppose acceptable to the 



INDIVIDUALITY AND EVENTUALITY. 77 

Creator. Whatever is clone to enforce blind obedi- 
ence is tyranny, and is calculated only to perpetuate 
error, and evil, and misery on mankind. Yet this 
tyranny is extensively exercised in our own country, 
and the consequence is, that morality is not im- 
proved, and religious observances and creeds become 
less respected, as is evinced in the agitation of the 
present times. We shall not have peace until know- 
ledge is the portion of all, and the reasoning powers 
called into action to determine what is best for so^ 
ciety. 

We should begin by considering the External 
Senses, which serve as the means of communication 
between the mind and the external world. The 
subject is very interesting, but would lead us too 
far. The importance of their being in a perfect 
state is sufficiently obvious. We shall, therefore, 
pass on to the consideration of the first division of 
the Intellectual Faculties, the Perceptive, which 
notice the existence of external objects and their 
physical qualities. 



INDIVIDUALITY AND EVENTUALITY. 

We often meet with persons who know something 
of every thing that passes around them — who desire 
to know every thing — possess a great store of facts, 
individual and eventual— and are very agreeable in 
society, being what are called clever or brilliant 
persons. Such persons, however, may not be pro- 
found, or capable of making discoveries for them- 
selves. 



78 INDIVIDUALITY AND EVENTUALITY. 

The faculty which leads to the knowledge of 
what is — of simple existence — is named Individu- 
ality. The kind of disposition which observes what 
passes, arises from a faculty which has received the 
name of Eventuality. These excite all the other 
faculties to contribute to their gratification. They 
are essential to what we call attention to what is 
passing, and contribute to safety. There is greater 
curiosity, or inquisitiveness, among children than 
among adults. They are always calling out — Let 
me hear, or Let me see, or Let me taste, or smell. 
They should always be indulged in this, and the 
properties and qualities of objects distinctly ex- 
plained to them. This not only makes them happy 
and contented in the mean time, but affords them 
a large stock of knowledge, that will greatly assist 
them in after life, and save them vast labour. 
Teachers, as well as parents, are in general too ill 
provided with knowledge themselves to be able to 
gratify the natural curiosity of children ; and, to 
hide their ignorance, too often answer an innocent 
question witli a rebuff. We remember expressing 
a curiosity to know what soap was made of. and 
got no satisfaction ; curiosity was damped ; and we 
did not know its composition until informed in a 
course of Chemistry many years after. It is foolish 
to say to children that it is too soon for them to 
know what they ask for, as they cannot understand 
it. Try them, at all events ; and if any thing oc 
curs which they do not comprehend, let them un- 
derstand that their powers of mind will increase 
as they grow older, and that, if they be careful of 
health, and attend to what they are advised to do, 



FORM. 79 

the time will come when they will be fully gratified. 
Satisfy them that education must be gradual and 
they will be patient ; and probably, when they are 
anxious, they will ask, not a direct question, but, 
Do you think I could understand such or such a 
thing-, if you were to explain it to me ? . Again — 
parents, if they do not know what children ask, 
ought never to answer erroneously, but at once con- 
fess ignorance, and promise the child to refer to 
some person who knows, or to a book. But the 
truth is, that to be a good teacher of children re- 
quires, we may say, great and universal talent, and 
a most extensive store of knowledge. Other teachers 
require a knowledge of only one branch ; but a 
teacher of infants must know every thing- ; and, 
therefore, it is hoped the nation will, in any plan 
for national education, provide amply for such men, 
and seek for them every where. Some of our pre- 
sent infant-schools are a very great step ; but, to be 
perfect, many steps have yet to be ascended. It is 
pretty well ascertained, that on the education of the 
first six years of life depends the future health and 
the future character. For such an end no pains, 
no expense, should be grudged. 



FORM. 

Of qualities, the faculty of Configuration or Form 
recognises one. Nothing can exist without having 
form ; and the faculty is exhibited in strength and 
weakness as others are. Some persons remember 
faces which they have once seen, and know persons 



80 size. 

again in this way. Others forget them. Some can 
name persons at a distance by observing- their form 
and manner of walking-. By means of this faculty, 
we can tell whether a portrait is like the original, 
and persons differ very much when tried by this 
test. We have known persons declare a facsimile 
not like the original. Some nations are remark- 
able for this faculty ; the Chinese and the French, 
for example. The French are more skilful than 
the English in the invention of patterns, and hence 
their fashions have long taken the lead. Without 
the faculty of Form, the study of natural history 
could not be successfully attempted, nor any branch 
of knowledge or art in which it is necessary to dis- 
tinguish forms. This faculty leads us to give form 
to every thing which occurs to us. It is of essen- 
tial use, and affords much gratification. 



SIZfi. 



The next Perceptive Faculty is that of Size. The 
notion of size, or of dimension, is different from any 
belonging to Form, because two things having the 
same form may differ vastly in size. Some persons 
who have this faculty powerful, can guess the vari- 
ous dimensions of an object, or distances, with 
wonderful facility and exactness. Hence it is worthy 
of being cultivated, it is of essential use to archi- 
tects, and mechanicians, and artists generally, as 
well as to geometricians. 



WEIGHT OR FORCE. 81 



WEIGHT OR FORCE. 



The next faculty has been called that of Weight, 
or Resistance, or Force, which last seems to be the 
most general term that can be employed to denote 
it; for weight is the force of gravitation, and resist- 
ance is a sense of something opposing force. By 
comparing degrees of the force of gravitation exert- 
ed on different bodies, or different masses of the 
same body, we come to know what we call their 
different weights. We commonly measure forces 
by weight, by ascertaining what weight is neces- 
sary to overcome resistance. It is the activity of 
this faculty that enables us to learn by experience 
to judge what amount of force is needed to overcome 
any obstacle, or effect any purpose. We do not, 
after experience, employ so much force to move a 
ball of cork as one of lead. The faculty, then, 
seems to give us the knowledge and use of muscu- 
lar force or power, and of all other- forces, whatever 
may be their origin, and teaches us to estimate and 
how to use them. The sense of touch is apparently 
resolvable into that of force, as it operates only by 
resistance to force. But we will not detain you 
with such discussions. 



COLOUR. 

The next faculty is that of Colour. That there 
is a special faculty for colour seems indisputable. 
Many persons have been known whose vision was 



82 COLOUR. 

perfect in reference to light, who could not distin- 
guish one colour from another. We have been ac- 
quainted with individuals who were deficient in this 
quality. Some can distinguish only white and 
black; others cannot distinguish blue and green. 
There is a well informed person now living in 
Edinburgh who was an apprentice to a draper, but 
from the extraordinary mistakes he made in respect 
to the colour of goods which customers wanted, he 
was obliged to follow another profession. It often 
happens that a person can draw very well who can- 
not paint, producing only daubs when the attempt 
is made. Though this faculty perceives colours and 
their harmonies, it does not give the power of apply- 
ing them. That depends on higher intellectual fa- 
culties ; and, where they are weak, we see colours 
applied and arranged without taste, and in a glar- 
ing incongruous manner. We see this sad want of 
taste in the vile manner in which prints hung up in 
schools are daubed. It is better to have the prints 
without colour, or well coloured, otherwise the taste 
of the young people may be greatly vitiated. We 
do not speak of taste in reference to painting or 
drawing alone, but to the tasteful use of colours by 
those who may become artists in pattern drawing, 
enamelling, paper staining-, calico printing, paint- 
ing on earthenware, &c, in all of which good taste 
is requisite; and therefore we are decidedly of opi- 
nion that ill-coloured prints should be forthwith 
banished from schoolrooms, and really good ones 
substituted, otherwise harm will be done to this 
faculty instead of its being improved. When a child. 
is observed to hesitate and mistake one colour for 



LOCALITY. 83 

another, it should be ascertained whether it is be- 
cause it forgets the name, or cannot distinguish the 
colour, 

LOCALITY. 

We now come to the intellectual faculties which 
perceive the Relations of External Objects. The 
first of these has been named Locality, or Relative 
Position, which last term conveys its function most 
distinctly. Perhaps, however, the primitive function 
may include the cognizance of interval in reference 
to space, as well as the position of objects in rela- 
tion to each other. This faculty was first recog- 
nised by the observation that some persons could 
find their way by recognising places where they 
had been, while others either could not, or could 
with difficulty. To find one's way, it is necessary 
to mark the position of objects relatively to each 
other. This faculty is necessary to astronomers, 
whose science could not advance without a careful 
observation of relative positions. To navigators 
and geographers it is essential. It gives, when ac- 
tive, a propensity to travel. Some animals possess 
this faculty in an extraordinary degree, and you 
must all have heard stories of dogs finding their 
way in a wonderful manner. It is this that seems 
to be periodically excited in migrating animals. 
It also gives the pleasure derived from scenery ; and 
is indispensable to. the painter who composes land- 
scapes, that he may give all the objects such rela- 
tive positions as will make them harmonize in their 
forms and colours. To such persons as are little en- 



84 NUMBER. 

dowed with this faculty, pictures, however interest- 
ing to others, convey no satisfaction, and they ap- 
pear to have no perception of perspective. Its uses, 
then, are apparent. When over active, it produces 
restlessness, a desire for constant change of place, 
and for new scenes. It is a faculty that merits cul- 
tivation in childhood, when it appears deficient es- 
pecially. It is necessary in the sublimest of the 
sciences, and is a source of much instruction and 
pleasure. 

NUMBER. 

The next faculty is that of Calculation or Num- 
ber. It is well known that individuals differ great- 
ly in their powers of calculation. Some have had 
it so strong and active as to have been publicly ex- 
hibited. One of them, the celebrated George Bid- 
der, told us that his power became known to him- 
self in consequence of his having been behind some 
of his schoolfellows in repeating the multiplication 
table, which they did by rote, as many do ; but he 
was not so quick in getting things by heart. His 
attention having been roused by fault having been 
found with him (we forget whether he said he had 
been punished), he found that he could calculate 
each step of the table with great rapidity, and by 
doing so repeat the table as fast as others. He 
then, by mental processes which occurred to him, 
came to solve questions without the assistance of 
written figures, and consequently not only got far 
before those who had rules merely by rote, but ex- 
celled and astonished his teachers. He could men- 



NUMBER. 85 

tally solve in a minute such a question as this : 
Suppose a wheel of 4 feet diameter to run on a road 
and make 50 revolutions in a minute, how far would 
the carriage to which it was attached go in 10 hours? 
Of the vast use of this faculty in the ordinary affairs 
in life we need not speak. No one doubts the im- 
portance of cultivating- it, and much attention is 
paid to it. The apparatus of Wilderspin is admir- 
ably adapted to giving- notions of number, and to 
making- children learn certain facts related to num- 
ber in a better way than altogether by rote. But 
we think very young- children may be induced to 
exercise the faculty of number in a more efficient 
way than merely getting words, the names of num- 
bers, and the results of calculation which are facts. 
The true exercise is to make them find out some- 
thing like method and combination, and we think 
this may be done 5 at least if we may judge from an 
experiment once made in the Dingwall Infant 
School, and of which the master availed himself. 
It was this ; the children were singing out the pence 
table, and we stopped them at — thirty pence is two 
and sixpence. How do you find out, children, that 
thirty pence is two and sixpence ; we said. They 
all looked at us with very grave and anxious faces, 
and we paused a while, seeing that their minds 
were at work. We then hinted the first step, by 
saying, Tell me how many pennies make a six- 
pence. Six, was instantaneously screamed. Well 
then, children, how many sixpences are in a shil- 
ling ? Two, was the ready answer. Now, then, 
how much is two sixes ? Twelve. Very well ; How 
many pennies are there in a shilling ? Twelve v 



86 NUMBER. 

Very well ; you see that because six pennies make 
a sixpence, and because two sixpences make a shil- 
ling-, you have only to add two sixes tog-ether, which 
make twelve. Now, if twelve pennies make one 
shilling-, how many should there be in two shil- 
ling's ? This seemed to require a little time, but at 
leng-th one of them sung out, twice twelve is twen- 
ty-four, and the rest sung out too, happy that the 
discovery was made. Well then, children, we have 
got as far as twenty-four ; now tell me how many- 
do you want to make up thirty ? Very soon the 
answer was given, six. Well then, you sea that 
when you think how many pence are in a sixpence, 
and in a shilling, and in two shillings, you find out 
how many pennies make two shillings and sixpence, 
which we also call half-a-crown ; because five shil- 
ling's make a crown, which is sixty pence, because 
five times twelve make sixty. Now remember all 
this when we see you again. Here the matter end- 
ed. We have no doubt whatever that the very best 
form of teaching- is conversation ; any thing like 
tasks being altogether abolished. This no doubt 
requires high talent and accomplishment in a 
teacher, and an infant school teacher needs more 
than any other ; but no pains nor expense should 
be spared to procure the best qualified. 



ORDER. 

The next faculty we come to consider is that of 
Order, or, perhaps, Symmetry is the proper name 
for it. We observe some persons exceedingly care- 



ORDER. 87 

ful to place things, and to keep them, in order. 
Even children are noticed who shew a disposition 
to restore things to their usual places after they have 
been removed. This disposition, however, does not 
exhibit the entire function of the faculty. That is 
exhibited in the arrangement of things in a deter- 
minate order, according to their use and form. For 
example, suppose there were a number of figures, 
all of different heights, this faculty would give the 
tendency to place the shortest first, the next in size 
second, and so on to the tallest. Suppose, again, 
that there is one tall figure and two shorter of equal 
size, then the tall one is placed in the middle, and 
one on each side. The operation of the faculty is 
also observable in architecture, and in the arrange- 
ment of walks in pleasure-grounds, planting trees, 
&c. A ludicrous example of it is narrated of a 
gardener, in whom the faculty was so powerful that 
the word uniformity was always in his mouth. On 
one occasion, a person had been condemned to 
stand in what was called the jougs, or pillory, and 
the post happened to stand on one side of a gate 
leading into the approach to the place where the 
gardener served. So great was his love of unifor- 
mity, that he had a jougs erected on the other side 
of the gate, and bribed a man to stand as long as 
the culprit was exhibited. 

The desire to see a thing completed appears to 
belong to this faculty, and also what the English 
call tidiness. Cleanliness is an essential part of 
tidiness. This faculty, then, appears most useful. 
The encouragement to cleanliness promotes health ; 
and a habit of it is agreeable to all around us. 



88 TIME. 



There can be no doubt that the human mind 
takes cognizance of time, or duration. That there 
is a special faculty for this is proved, as in other 
cases, by differences in the perceptions of different 
individuals. Some can guess with great exactness 
the time that elapses between one event and ano- 
ther, while others cannot approach to correctness. 
Some can perform certain actions exactly in the 
same time with others ; and some cannot keep time 
to music in dancing- ; nor when they attempt to play 
on musical instruments, or to sing in concert. Much 
expense is often uselessly incurred in teaching mu- 
sic to young persons deficient in this faculty and 
the next, — that of Melody, or Tune. 



TUNE. 

That this faculty exists independent of the sense 
of hearing, is evident from the fact, that persons 
who hear may be indifferent to music ; while others 
are so fond of it, as to give up their whole time to 
it. It is a faculty from which so much rational and 
innocent enjoyment may be derived, as to make it 
very desirable to cultivate it. 

ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE OR SPEECH. 

We now come to the faculty of Language, igno- 
rance of the existence of which has led to vast er- 



ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE OR SPEECH. 89 

rors in education. Natural language is common to 
man and to animals, — at least the natural language 
of faculties possessed by both. A dog, having the 
faculty producing anger, knows its expression by 
the sign and sound of it in his master. Artificial 
language, which is the means of gratifying all the 
faculties, is peculiar to man. By means of this fa- 
culty, audible or visible signs were invented to ex- 
press ideas ; and to employ these signs, we must 
have organs of voice, sight, and hearing. We should 
have stated before, that each faculty is apparently 
more or less perfect in different parts of its func- 
tions. In this of Language, we find some persons 
deficient in memory for names, as others may be for 
dates. Various qualities of objects may be remem- 
bered, and the particulars in which one thing- dif- 
fers from another, while their names are forgotten. 
Disease, or injury of the part where the organ of 
this faculty is placed, produce failure of memory, 
and even loss of words has occurred. There are 
persons who cannot speak more than two or three 
words at a time, who are deemed idiots, and they 
are so to a certain extent; but while the cause of 
imbecility is sought for in the tongue and other 
organs of speech, it is to be found in the brain. All 
the organs of speech may be perfect, and yet the 
power to command words to express thought and 
feeling be absent. This faculty informs us of arbi- 
trary signs, those called letters and words ; enables 
us to remember them, and facilitates all exercises 
connected with words. Admitting this faculty, then, 
and that it is powerful in some and weak in others, 
it is evident that in learning languages, one person 



90 ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE OR SPEECH. 

may excel another in a great degree, by mere force 
of natural endowment. But schoolmasters have 
acted as if deficiency in this faculty could be made 
up by the free use of bundles of birch-twigs or straps 
of leather, applied to tender skin so as to make it 
smart. A boy with this faculty well developed will 
necessarily excel those who have but a moderate 
share of it. If, then, ability is given by Nature, 
why should a boy be rewarded for possessing- what 
he did not obtain for himself, and another be 
punished for natural deficiency ? That the world 
should have gone on so long* before facts of hourly 
occurrence led to the observation, that both endow- 
ment and deficiency originated in natural constitu- 
tion, is a matter of surprise. Nay, so extraordinary 
have been the effects of our ignorance, that defi- 
cient subjects have been most negiected, while they 
were those to whom the greatest attention was re- 
quisite. When we were at school it appeared that 
the master considered the boobies, or dunces, to have 
been sent to him only to be flogged. We have 
known many dunces, into whom flogging could not 
drive Greek and Latin, live to be men distinguished 
for many more important acquirements, and for 
being useful members of society, while mere lin- 
guists were left far behind by these same supposed 
dunces. It is not to be denied — it would be absurd 
to deny — that while the acquirement of modern 
languages is extremely useful, that of the dead lan- 
guages is an elegant accomplishment ; but to de- 
vote six, ten, or more years, the most important of 
life, to dead languages, is exceedingly irrational. 
The faculty of language ought to be assiduously cul- 



ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE OR SPEECH. 91 

tivated, and the memory of words particularly. 
But this is to be done by satisfying- the pupil of its 
utility ; and, with such as cannot understand utility, 
coaxing- and reasoning-, not punishment and tasking-, 
are to be employed. By coaxing-, we do not mean 
bribery ; thoug-h there is no harm in that, provided 
that bribing- one does not injure another. Much 
may be done by making- learning' a thing- of amuse- 
ment. And here it may be remarked, that we have 
seldom met with a schoolmaster without a grave 
face, and without appearing- almost incapable of 
smiling-. If ever it shall fall to our lot to choose a 
schoolmaster, the chief test of his qualification shall 
be his being- able to tell a funny story, and being- 
disposed to laug-h and make merry. The corners 
of his mouth shall turn up, and not down. Instruc- 
tion should be a thing of delig-ht and amusement, 
not of labour and terror. We have suffered, and 
many of you may also have suffered, much terror, la- 
bour, and pain for the sake of the dead languages ; 
and have gained nothing- from it in after life. 
Many of us can be useful to our fellow-creatures 
though we may have entirely forgotten Greek and 
Latin, and know no other but our mother tongue. 
Nevertheless, it cannot be doubted that the faculty 
of language ought to be sedulously improved, the 
usefulness of modern languages inculcated ; and, as 
accomplishments, Greek and Latin may be acquired; 
though, if morality be regarded, there will be found 
no means of guarding or improving it in the school 
literature of Greece and Rome. It is supposed that 
a clergyman becomes a better Christian than his 
neighbours by learning to read the New Testament 



92 COMPARISON. 

in Greek. We wish all would agree in how it 
should be translated, and, when translated, in its 
meaning- and extent ; and the world would be more 
peaceful. 



COMPARISON. 

We now come to the Reflecting Faculties, 
which are two in number, Comparison and Causali- 
ty. With respect to the faculty of Comparison, it 
may be better understood by the word analogy ; for 
every faculty compares within its own sphere. This 
faculty, however, compares objects cognized by dif- 
ferent faculties, and compares things with one an- 
other which have no actual resemblance. For ex- 
ample, the faculty of Colouring compares one colour 
with another; but when we compare the harmony 
of soft sounds to the blending of the colours in the 
rainbow, it is the faculty we now speak of that 
makes the comparison. It compares things of the 
most opposite kinds, and perceives likeness which 
takes the form of analogy. For example, the death 
of a good man may be compared to a fine sunset. 
The Scriptural analogy between the kingdom of 
Heaven and a grain of mustard seed, is prompted 
by, and addressed to, this faculty. Poetry is full 
of it ; and those orators are most popular who deal 
in fanciful comparisons ; because the multitude is 
better endowed with this faculty in general, than 
with the next faculty we are to consider. Every 
orator or preacher who has more of this faculty than 
of that which leads to strict logical reasoning', deals 



COMPARISON. 93 

in metaphors, similes, and figures of speech, accord- 
ing" to the suggestions of such of his other faculties 
as may be most prominent. The celebrated Dr 
Chalmers, whose faculties for Mathematics and 
Astronomy predominate, generally uses figures of 
speech derived from the sciences. Many persons 
are thought profound reasoners who do nothing 
more than state analogies ; and, because they strike 
the hearers as reasonable, an inference is drawn 
which strict reasoning might not warrant. No- 
thing deceives so much ; and hence orators and law- 
yers before a jury make ample use of it ; and, con- 
sequently, truth suffers not a little on some occa- 
sions, while on others it is powerfully enforced. A 
speech or a sermon is scarcely attended to when it 
is an argumentative detail ; but when full of illus- 
trations, and tropes, and figures, it is to many minds 
improved in perspicuity, and carries all before it. 
Two speakers, skilful in the use of analogy, speak- 
ing on opposite sides of the question, puzzle the lis- 
teners exceedingly, when they do not apply strict 
reason or the feeling of justice to what they hear. 
King James the First of England, having listened 
to two theologians on a disputed point, scratched 
his head, and exclaimed, " The deil's in the carles, 
they're baith in the right." 

While this faculty of Comparison catches ideas 
from the perceptive or knowing faculties, and de 
liberately institutes an analogy or a simile, the fa- 
culty of Ideality clothes its expression with anima- 
tion and fire, and gives all its charms to oratory, 
and no small share of its influence. Comparison 
may be said to be a candle, which throws a quiet 



94 COMPARISON. 

and sufficient light upon an object ; but Ideality 
converts the candle into a lamp. It may be said 
to resemble the lyre of Timotheus, which raised the 
soul to heaven ; while Ideality is the organ of St 
Cecilia, which drew an angel down. We speak of 
the softness of charity, and of hardness of heart ; 
and a thousand instances of Comparison, and the 
enthusiasm of Ideality, will occur to you. 

This faculty, like every thing arising from the 
Creator, is eminently useful in exciting our notice 
of things, and their properties and qualities. It 
seems to lead us to say — This will do well, but that 
will do better ; ancl makes us choose the best. To 
lead the young to compare one thing with another, 
imparts pleasure to the minds, and adds vastly to 
their knowledge. If we see two masses of matter 
before us, exactly similar in size, and shape, and 
colour, they may yet differ in other qualities, which 
it is necessary for us to know. Comparison, then, 
prompts us to touch them, and this informs the fa- 
culty of Individuality that they are both hard or 
soft, Or one hard and the other soft ; and farther 
knowledge is given through the senses of taste, 
smell, and hearing. Although this faculty is more 
generally possessed powerful than any other, it loses 
its energy by neglect. Exercise must be given to it, 
else it will not afford the benefit intended by the 
Creator we should derive from it. 



CAUSALITY. 



The last faculty we have to consider is named 



CAUSALITY. 95 

Causality, from its function of giving- the idea of 
the invisible bond between cause and effect. It 
satisfies us that every phenomenon must have a 
cause, and leads us, step by step, to the First Cause 
of all. And not only does this refer to the pheno- 
mena of matter, but to the motives and causes of 
action in ourselves and fellow-creatures. The fa- 
culties of Individuality and Eventuality apply 
themselves to judge from facts, Causality from cir- 
cumstances. Hence, on the trial of a culprit, a jury 
endowed with much Individuality, and little Causa- 
lity, will hardly convict on circumstantial evidence. 
If choosing* a jury by ballot could, on occasion, give 
us the men endowed with the largest share of Cau- 
sality, it would be valuable. As things are, it is not 
uncommon for trials in civil causes to be removed 
from a place where it is supposed justice has not 
been done, to another. Juries ought not to be 
chosen by ballot, but on account of intellect; and the 
old mode of leaving the judge to select was better 
than the present, as he selected men who, from their 
known estimation for discernment, were best fitted 
for a particular case. This faculty enables the 
mind to penetrate deeply into every thing ; and, in 
argument, will not admit of any thing* but the 
strictest sequence. When, however, it is not sup- 
ported by Individuality and Comparison, it carries 
us into the region of speculation, far away from the 
concerns of life. When Causality is feeble, the 
mind cannot enter into the abstractions of science, 
or the intricacies of business. In such a case, re- 
mote and contingent things are not perceived, and 
the profound investigations of Causality are deemed 



96 CAUSALITY. 

little better than dreams and impossibilities. In 
this we find the cause of imperfect legislation and 
inefficient government. The ambition which Love 
of Approbation excites, leads men to undertake 
what they cannot perform. Instead of examining 
into the dependence of one thing on another, they 
resort to temporary means of effecting an object, 
which may for a moment succeed, but ends in 
making bad worse. Were our legislators well in- 
formed of things, and their relations to each other; 
if they knew man, and the relation in which he 
stands to external things ; if they felt the impera- 
tive demands of Conscientiousness, and rose above 
their petty selves, — they would not tamper so much 
with the welfare of society, nor risk its peace and 
security. If well stored with the knowing and re- 
flecting powers, six men would represent our com- 
munity better than 600 ill-provided with aught but 
prejudice and party spirit. The true philosophical 
understanding is made up of the faculties of Indi- 
viduality and Eventuality, which make us acquaint- 
ed with facts and phenomena ; the faculty of Com- 
parison, which informs us of their identity, analogy, 
or difference ; and of Causality, which prompts us 
to penetrate into the causes of every thing. This 
faculty enables a person to find resources when or- 
dinary means are not present. We have seen one 
labourer spend a w hole day trying- to remove a stone 
with the tool in his hand, which was not adapted 
for the purpose : we have seen another go for a 
proper tool and do the thing at once. A person 
with a tolerable share of Causality will contrive 
means to produce an effect that may be desired ; 



CAUSALITY. 97 

while another, deficient in it, will be idle, or ask 
another to do that for him which he cannot do him- 
self. A person with a fair share of Individuality, 
Eventuality, and Language, will write a good book 
of narrative, but if, without a good share of Causa- 
lity, he attempt to unfold a chain of reasoning, he 
gets confused, Such a person, taking up a bcok 
written by one with a large endowment of Causality, 
calls it dry and tiresome. Young people being 
prone to indulge in reading- stories which gratify 
by their facts and occurrences, the faculties for which 
are usually most prominent in childhood and youth, 
the most important faculty we are now considering 
is left idle, and becomes feeble solely from want 
of exercise. Those faculties which are naturally 
strongest require less attention than such as are 
feeble, and it may be said, perhaps, no faculty re- 
quires so much careful nursing as Causality. 

For more extended illustrations of the functions 
of the faculties, we must refer you to Combe's Sys- 
tem of Phrenology ; and for their connection with 
external things, to his work on the Constitution of 
Man. This last work has been so much appreciated 
that it has run through many editions of many thou- 
sands of copies each, in a time almost incredibly 
short. 



From the preceding enumeration of the human 
faculties, it will have been perceived, that nothing 
in man's nature has been created in vain ; that 
every faculty is useful to him when it is regulated 

G 



( 98 ) 

according- to the Divine Will ; and that they are 
productive of evil only when we bring- it on our- 
selves, by disregarding- the proper cultivation of the 
Moral Sentiments, the exercise of which is intended 
to counteract every thing like excess in the animal 
nature of man, and to place him in the high sta- 
tion which the Creator intended him to occupy, 
There are yet many difficulties that meet us while 
investigating- human nature ; and we are apt hastily 
to draw conclusions which, when we reflect on the 
perfection of the Creator, we ought to suspend, as 
derogatory to his benevolence and justice, and lay 
to the account of our own ignorance. In acting 
thus, we perceive that we may, by industry, substi- 
tute knowledge for ignorance ; and we are excited 
to search into God's works : " Seek and ye shall 
find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.' 1 ' 
Every thing done in contradiction to the Moral Sen- 
timents brings its own punishment. We are apt 
to accuse fate, luck, and so forth ; but whenever 
we trace effect to its cause, we find that we our- 
selves are to blame for permitting our propensities 
to act blindly. We repeat, read Mr Combe's work 
on the Constitution of Man, and you will there find 
ample illustration of what has now been stated. A 
cheap edition of that work has been published by 
the Messrs Chambers, to whom the world is indebt- 
ed for a great amount of instruction and entertain- 
ment. 



( 99 ) 



MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF FACULTIES. 

We now request your attention to the mutual in- 
fluence which the different faculties have upon each 
other. They seldom act singly, but almost always 
in combination. You will easily conceive that, as 
men are not endowed with the faculties equally, 
that is, every one not having- them in the same pro- 
portion, talent and character come thus to be in- 
finitely varied. No two individuals are alike in 
every respect. If any of you will take the trouble 
to calculate the variations which may occur among 
thirty-five faculties, taking into account different 
states of activity, as well as power from- difference 
in size, you will very soon perceive we do not use the 
term infinitely unadvisedly. To a teacher a know- 
ledge of the faculties is indispensable ; and that each 
faculty has its organ in the brain, and may be ob- 
served externally to a very considerable extent, is a 
valuable fact to assist in determining the power of an 
individual, and this is the province of phrenological 
science. Since there is this evident variety in dis- 
positions and talents, it is absurd in any teacher to 
imagine himself the model or standard being, and 
to expect that every pupil can do what he can do 
with equal facility. The proportions among the 
faculties in him being different from those in his 
pupils, require him to study the differences with 
care, and to act accordingly. But this is seldom 
done. The mutual influence must be attended to. 
The courage of females is roused into unusual acti- 
vity when their young are in danger, though at the 



100 MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF FACULTIES. 

same time they have but little of the feeling-. The 
desire to possess, Acquisitiveness, excites caution, 
and these two excite Secretiveness. Firmness is 
aided by Hope and a sense of Justice. Wonder 
may be roused by Ideality ; and, in short, the opera- 
tions on each other appear infinite. But it is evi- 
dent that the faculties which are most powerful will 
chiefly influence the others that are less so; and 
hence, when these are known, and appear to act 
unfavourably, the weak powers must be assisted, 
and the strong 1 ones repressed. It is always of the 
greatest consequence to bring- the moral sentiments 
into a state of activity, as they bug-lit to have the 
chief influence in directing all the others to their 
legitimate uses. When emulation is roused, the in- 
fluence of one faculty over another is perceived in 
its unusual efforts to excel. If a prize be offered to 
Acquisitiveness, on certain conditions, the faculties 
adapted to fulfil the conditions are instantly set to 
work. When any particular study attracts an in- 
dividual, he may ruin his health by over-working 
to gratify himself, as others often do from a desire 
to be distinguished. The brain being the seat of 
the faculties, and the centre of nervous energy, any 
faculty over-wrought produces disease, which often 
terminates in imbecility and death. To over-task 
children is ruinous ; and it requires the utmost care 
in a teacher to modify the amount of work to suit 
the strength of the faculty under cultivation ; for 
one may need more exercise than another, and one 
may be able to effect more than another. In refer- 
ence to emulation it may be observed that, if two 
children are set to get some lines of poetry by heart, 



MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF FACULTIES. 101 

and have an equal endowment of Love of Approba- 
tion, but an unequal talent for language, both will 
exert the same spirit, but the one with the better 
faculty of Language will outstrip the other. In 
ordinary schools the boy with the best faculty would 
be rewarded, and the other punished, though both 
had made equal efforts. Suppose now that they 
both had Language equally powerful, but that one 
had a great deal more Love of Approbation than 
the other, this one will excel the other because he 
has a stronger motive, and may become the better 
scholar of the two. -In this case also the teacher 
may err in not stimulating the weaker Love of Ap- 
probation. But the two should never be set to com- 
pete with each other. Each one needs to be taught 
by himself. Seeing, then, that the faculties power- 
fully influence each other, it becomes of vast im- 
portance to give them a proper direction. If we 
reflect on what ought to constitute a happy society, 
we at once conclude that the cultivation of morality 
renders it so. Morality is not, however, negative 
~-it is not the mere absence of crime or vice ; but 
also the positive operation of doing good. There- 
fore, in Education, we have to direct all the facul- 
ties to their proper objects, and the superior moral 
sentiments are those which deserve the highest cul- 
tivation, because they are the directors of all the 
others. In past time the understanding has been 
exclusively cultivated as the chief part of the mind ; 
but unless the understanding be under the guidance 
of moral sentiment, it will be, as it has been, em- 
ployed only to assist inferior faculties to gratify 
themselves. If we look about us in the world, we 



102 MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF FACULTIES. 

shall see that this statement is too true. A person 
inclined to gratify Acquisitiveness by stealing, but 
with a puny understanding, will betray himself, or 
be easily detected; but with a better intellect, he 
will consider all circumstances of time, place, and 
means, so as to avoid detection if he can. Strong 
intellect with weak moral sentiment produces a 
dangerous character. Persons of this stamp prove 
frequently the scourges of nations. Why is crime 
punished, but because we prefer moral conduct to 
criminal ? Why is sin denounced, but because good 
deeds are acceptable to the Creator? Yet while 
crimes are sedulously punished, and while sin is 
sedulously preached against, What is done to give 
strength and mastery to moral feeling ? Nothing. 
It is neither promoted, nor are the abuses of the fa- 
culties repressed ; the intellect is all in all in the 
existing system of education. The understanding 
has its best employment in the attainment of due 
effect from moral and religious feelings. How often 
is it forgotten from whence the command issued to 
love our neighbours as ourselves ? In this command 
our Self-Esteem is appealed to, and we are desired 
to estimate the love we have for ourselves, and to 
deal out the same proportion of love to all. So 
highly did the Author of Christianity value this 
moral feeling of love, and obedience to the laws of 
morality issued by God, that He declared He es- 
teemed those who did the will of his Father as his 
dearest relatives. Universal benevolence is the 
grand touchstone of Christianity, and yet is rare 
among Christians, who, as the world now is, are too 
much governed by selfishness alone. That this is 



MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF FACULTIES. 103 

the case can be attributed only to ignorance of our 
own nature, and the consequent errors of education. 
The moral and religious feelings should have supre- 
macy, and rule over all the faculties, directing their 
applications to proper objects. They are, however, 
neglected, as if there was no such thing as moral 
feeling in nature. Though man has power over his 
inferior in creation, he is not entitled to abuse it. 
The moral sentiments, if he would listen to them, 
forbid every abuse, and command the exercise of 
mercy. He kills for food, but is not permitted to 
torture. Far less has man authority to inflict evil 
on his fellow men. All agree in such opinions, but 
all do not agree as to the best means of obtaining 
such ends. Means and ends are often confounded. 
Some wait for divine influence ; but, in our humble 
apprehension, it is improper to expect divine aid, 
until we have made & proper use of what God has al- 
ready put within our reach. Let us first use that 
as we ought, and then we may in reason look for a 
divine blessing on our labours. 

The vast importance to society of moral conduct 
is very generally admitted. To secure it, a well 
directed and well conducted education of the facul- 
ties appears to be the means best Calculated for 
this purpose. Let us next consider, then, that the 
tendency of each faculty is to produce action ; there- 
fore the primitive functions must be studied before 
the proper education can be applied to direct that 
action. Emulation has been referred to, which 
arises out of the Love of Approbation. Hence, 
when this faculty is strong, it needs no encourage- 
ment, but rather repression. When moderate, a 



104 MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF FACULTIES. 

sound judgment will find opportunities of employ- 
ing* it with advantage. Nor should the fear of of- 
fending either this or Self-Esteem deter from ac- 
customing children to have their faults pointed out 
to them, and the feelings which occasion them ex- 
plained, and directing the exercise of faculties which 
are antagonist to those which are predominant. 
Any of the faculties may be directed to good or to 
evil. The correction of predominance must of ne- 
cessity be gradual, and patience is the first virtue 
in a teacher. The exercise of mere authority, a 
word of command, cannot change a natural ten- 
dency. The same treatment will not suit every 
child ; and education will never produce good con- 
duct, which is preferable to learning, while teachers 
continue to believe the mind of every child a plastic 
mass, on which whatever they will may be im- 
pressed. Hence it is our opinion that no expense 
should be spared by the public to procure the ser- 
vices of teachers fully qualified to manage every 
case. Such are rare, and proportionally precious. 

To return to the mutual influence of the faculties. 
Love of Approbation demands distinction. This 
may be procured by proper and improper means ; 
and unless the faculty be placed under the direction 
of the moral sentiments, it may call the lower pro- 
pensities into action, and seek notoriety in debauch- 
ery, and mischief, and riot; while, if under right 
direction, it may demand gratification from the con- 
structive and other faculties applied to the arts, or 
from the knowing and reflecting faculties in the 
walks of science. The consequences of fraud may 
be contrasted with those of honesty, and Acquisi- 



MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF FACULTIES. 105 

tiveness be prevented from gratifying itself by dis- 
honesty, by guiding it to derive higher pleasure from 
the practice of honourable industry. Nor is it ne- 
cessary only to guide the faculties. Children may 
be taught their own nature as far as they may be 
able to comprehend it ; may be told that a faculty 
predominates, which, for their future happiness, 
they must check ; and, for the same purpose, that 
they must exercise one that is weak. Motives for 
action must exist, and the best and most rational 
motives should be excited, and this too in attention 
to bodily as well as to mental health. 

The amount of direction and instruction which 
may be given by well informed teachers and parents 
on every occasion, and to very young children, is 
immense. The nature of food, whence it is derived, 
how it is cooked, — a thousand things may be told 
about what might be thought trifles ; — and moral 
knowledge, as well as physical, may be conveyed 
in the same way. Neither parents nor teachers 
should ever repress curiosity, by telling children 
that they are not old enough to know, or that it is 
not proper they should know. This is a disgrace- 
ful way to hide ignorance. It is better at once to 
acknowledge ignorance, and to promise inquiry. 
Bread furnishes discourse on agriculture, chemistry, 
and mechanics ; a potato, on vegetable physiology ; 
a knife, on mineralogy, mining, metallurgy, and 
various arts ; a bit of paper will furnish materials 
for a long lecture ; even a particle of dust furnishes 
a theme. for much instruction and amusement. But 
those who are ill taught cannot teach. Although 
children may not be able to follow out the pro- 



106 MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF FACULTIES. 

cesses of observation, reasoning-, and calculation that 
lead to discovery, they will be found capable of en- 
joying- the detail of the facts of science, and not al- 
ways unable to apply them. 

It is a lamentable mistake, but a very common 
one, to suppose it enough to tell a child to be this 
or that, — to be merciful, obedient, and so forth, as 
if this could create feelings. If a feeling of be- 
nevolence do not exist, no preaching about charity 
or mercy can excite it. The feelings must be ex- 
cited to action, and not vainly bidden to exist. 
Another thing* equally unfortunate is, that teachers 
are not aware that the same faculties may be exer- 
cised in childhood, on objects very different from 
those to which they are likely to be afterwards ap- 
plied. A child may be ambitious to possess a toy, 
when a man may strive for the badge of an order 
of knighthood, to possess an estate, or may feel un- 
happy because he cannot obtain what another has, 
and thus envy and jealousy may result, and all this 
from the same source. 

We often see nurses and mothers torment children 
by resisting their demands, and at last yielding to 
them. Nothing can be more injurious. If any 
faculty predominates, — if firmness produce obsti- 
nacy, and courage resistance, let them be repressed 
by steady conduct, and not be encouraged by the 
hope that they will gain their ends. Too often 
children are required to do what is unjust, and that 
is not the way to teach them justice. Timid chil- 
dren should be cautiously accustomed to face dan- 
ger. If they are too bold, means may be found to 
let the child experience evil consequences, and be 



MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF FACULTIES. 107 

taught the propriety of keeping combative impulse 
down. When children are too much applauded, 
they become vain and proud, and are thus tempted 
to do wrong-, and become troublesome. The feel- 
ing- of private interest is in g-eneral too strong-, and 
it is actually taug-ht that the chief purpose of life is 
to accumulate riches ; and that the object of such 
accumulation is, that all desires may be gratified, 
money being supposed capable of procuring all we 
need. Those who acquire riches are very apt to 
give wealth undue importance ; and, indeed, the 
world is too apt to defer to it in all things. Ac- 
quisitiveness thus derives nutriment and becomes 
excessive, and its gratification becomes so imperious 
that other faculties are called upon to serve it. 
There is no injustice in any pursuit while another 
is not injured. But when selfishness prevents Be- 
nevolence from bestowing what is not needed by 
self, an injury is inflicted on society. When Bene- 
volence acts powerfully, and overcomes selfishness, 
benefits are conferred. Yet, when we look around 
us, we perceive that the action of the faculties singly 
is too much cherished, and injury to others in the 
attainment of gratification overlooked. Those who 
have most talents will govern those who have least ; 
and as long as talent is employed for selfish pur- 
poses, and not for the general advantage of society, 
and is not under control of the moral sentiments, 
tyranny will rise, be pulled down, and another ty- 
ranny be established ; and so on v/ill the world go, 
being turned and overturned. The direction given 
to all the faculties ought to be in obedience to the 
moral sentiments. 



108 RELIGIOUS FEELING, 



RELIGIOUS FEELING. 

We may be expected to say something' of the direc- 
tion of the sentiments which combine to give the re- 
ligious feeling. Very little will suffice. Modes of 
worship are various in different countries. Some 
consider the sacrifice of human life, some of animals, 
as acceptable to the Deity. Some assume painful 
postures, others dance ; some fast, some flog or cut 
their skin, and various absurd things are done to 
conciliate the favour of the Great Spirit. Some, 
again, fearing an evil spirit more than loving a 
good one, perform similar actions for propitiation. 
So credulous are mankind that, let any one trump 
up a story, however ridiculous it may appear to 
common sense, and pronounce it with an air of au- 
thority, it will be believed. This is not peculiar to 
barbarians or savages, for even Christians differ 
among themselves, and sects are formed by bold- 
ness of preaching, or rank imposture. It is scarcely 
credible that Joanna Southcote had followers who 
believed every thing she said, and did what she 
commanded. Credulity is the offspring of Hope, 
and ought to be checked, — imposture succeeds with 
Marvellousness, which should be put on its guard, 
— truth should be unfolded to the Intellect, and to 
Conscientiousness ; and when they are satisfied, 
there is little risk from credulity or imposture. 
There exists great diversity of opinion in regard to 
the interpretations to be given to the contents of the 
Bible, which are the foundations of the various doc- 
trines that divide Christians. There seems no pro- 



SPECIAL DIRECTION OF FACULTIES. 109 

spect of a perfect union ; and this will be more and 
more distant, while peculiar doctrines are infused 
into the minds of the young, before they are capa- 
ble of judging" for themselves, or understanding 
what they are commanded to believe. In this mat- 
ter each sect must be left to itself, until knowledge 
shall be increased, or it shall ; please God to inter- 
pose and enable mankind to distinguish truth from 
error. 

SPECIAL DIRECTION OF FACULTIES. 

Besides giving the faculties such a direction as 
to secure rectitude of general conduct, due consider- 
ation must be given to the station which it is likely 
will be occupied in after life, and how acquired 
knowledge will be applied. In every station moral 
conduct is necessary, and hence the assiduous cul- 
tivation and regulation of the faculties can never 
be unnecessary. In reference to their own bodily 
health and comfort, as well as to their interests as 
members of society, good conduct is required from 
every one ; and as it is also indispensable in order 
to shew obedience to the commands of God, it is 
the end of their existence. Improvement in moral 
conduct is desired by all ; and, therefore, if the 
means hitherto employed to effect this, however 
they may be sanctioned by long use, be found in- 
efficient, they should be set aside, and new means 
employed, such as may be justified by increasing 
knowledge of our own nature. Force, punishment, 
temptation, will neither produce good feelings nor 
eradicate bad ones ; they will not create intellect, 



110 SPECIAL DIRECTION OF FACULTIES. 

nor prevent it being- applied. We must know what 
already exists, and apply what reason, directed by 
knowledge, deems proper. There are faculties 
adapted to every employment of life ; and while 
some may be most sedulously cultivated that are to 
be used in a particular profession, not one should 
be neglected. Education for boys has too long- con- 
sisted of Latin and Greek ; for girls, music, draw- 
ing, and French, and little or nothing else. But 
were they instructed also in natural history in all 
its various branches, — were chemical experiments 
exhibited to them, and mechanical operations, we 
should confer great pleasure, and give instruction ' 
at the same time. Put young people in the way of 
knowledge, and they will soon display partiality 
for something, and point out in this way the kind 
of employment in which they are most likely to ex- 
cel, so as to make themselves independent. Even 
in regard to accomplishments, we try to force them 
in a manner the most preposterous, and at vast ex- 
penditure of money and of time, and often of health. 
How many women complain of the time wasted on 
music ! And it is also a great mistake to suppose, 
that fondness for music is all that is necessary to 
enable a person to perform on instruments. Even 
the wishes of an individual will not enable him to 
succeed ; and this we can state from our own case. 
We do not find many ladies who, after leaving 
school, practise music for the pleasure it affords to 
themselves. To excel in any thing, there must be 
a desire, and the necessary combination of talent 
to execute. If let alone, and placed in the way of 
.music or drawing, children soon exhibit their de- 



SPECIAL DIRECTION OF FACULTIES. Ill 

sires. And this may be discovered by putting" va- 
rious instruments in their way, and noticing" their 
choice. We think Wilderspin limits plaything's too 
much in the Infant Schools ; and are of opinion that 
the greater the variety of plaything's the better, 
provided they be what leads to utility. 

Accomplishments are most desirable when not 
attained by the sacrifice of what is more important ; 
but unless there be a natural desire for them they 
should be let alone ; for where no desire exists — no 
love for the things themselves — to excel so as to 
make them agreeable is impossible. Those who 
love and understand music do not meet one in 
twenty performers that can please them. If mamas 
imagine that husbands are to be caught for their 
daughters by means of accomplishments in an in- 
ferior degree, they are mistaken. Nor will any 
wise man marry for the sake of accomplishments 
alone. While they are most agreeable and desir- 
able in his eyes, he demands more than one faculty 
in a state of cultivation. All must have leisure 
time to recruit after exertion, whether bodily or 
mental, and that time is most delightfully filled up 
by music, drawing, or works of art. But, as al- 
ready observed, let no time or money be expended 
on these, unless there be that which enjoys them 
for their own sake, as well as the desire to please 
others. The desire to please is a powerful and 
valuable motive, and should be carefully encouraged. 
When any thing is done not quite to our minds, it 
is better to say, " I am much pleased with what 
you have done, I will now shew you how it may be 
better done ;" than to scold or punish. At a writ- 



112 SPECIAL DIRECTION OF FACULTIES, 

ing school, the pupils sometimes get a rap over the 
hand for not shaping" their letters properly, and 
thus the poor little ringers are disabled from doing- 
better. The mode of teaching to write by forcing 
little children to make letters too large even for a 
grown hand, and which are never afterwards used, 
is an absurdity that reigns at this day, to the dis- 
grace of common sense. Children ought at once to 
learn the smallest hand in use. But the cupidity 
of writing-masters will exclaim against this, be- 
cause it would amazingly abridge the time occupied 
in learning, and instead of filling- their pockets save 
money to the parents. A child that has a talent 
for drawing will shew it in writing, which is in fact 
a branch of drawing, and depends on the faculties 
of Form and Constructiveness. It would be of great 
importance could a space defended from the weather 
be provided for children at infant schools, and 
where large black boards, and a supply of bits of 
chalk, could be placed for their use, with which 
they might write or draw as they pleased. As 
things are, such boards might be used in fair wea- 
ther in the play-ground. 

The faculty of Order should be carefully culti- 
vated and directed. Whatever is given to children 
ought to be accompanied by instructions how they 
are to take care of it, and to return it when they 
have no further use for it, and not to break or de- 
stroy. Young females cannot be too early accus- 
tomed to keep a house in order, and family accounts 
distinct. This is the natural province of females, 
and such as excel in these matters are universally 
applauded and highly esteemed. In general con- 



SPECIAL DIRECTION OF FACULTIES. 113 

duct, Order is of great value, and practice is neces- 
sary for its improvement. The regulation of time, 
for bestowing it on different occupations, is of the 
utmost consequence. A boy should be placed in 
various situations, and be left to exercise his own 
powers, and to manage in his own way ; and, being 
observed well, he may be instructed when he errs, 
and commended when he does right. Perhaps this 
may not suit girls so well ; yet it is best to let them 
learn as much as possible from reality, rather than 
wholly from the experience of others. 

We are not quite certain of it, but are of opinion, 
that the faculty of Order contributes pretty largely, 
as well as Benevolence, to what is called refinement 
of manners. All coarseness of behaviour is dis- 
agreeable, as well as awkward motions, and every 
thing odd. All this may be, if not eradicated, 
greatly amended or prevented in young persons, by 
pointing out their awkwardness, and shewing them 
what to imitate. Nothing renders society so agree- 
able as suavity, and easy manner. No doubt these 
to many come of themselves naturally, but to very 
many they do not, — and, therefore, it should form 
part of early education to form manner. We often 
see among persons who move in the most refined 
society those who allow some unmannerly action 
or expression to escape ; and Destructiveness, under 
the cover even of smiles, too often employs itself to 
detract from our neighbours ; and Secretiveness and 
Love of Approbation are too often employed, in 
what is called the best circles, to invent and pro- 
pagate falsehood. Mischievous and unchristian as 
the propagation of lies may be, when done with the 

H 



114 SPECIAL DIRECTION OF FACULTIES. 

appearance of good manners, still proper behaviour 
is not to be neglected though thus abused. As 
Shakspeare says, a man may smile and smile and 
be a villain ; but a smiling face has charms which 
are not to be banished on that account from the 
faces of the good, though they may serve as masks 
for villany. 

In directing the reflecting faculties, we have no 
scarcity of subjects on which they may be exercised. 
It is absurd to say that children are incapable of 
reasoning. Doubtless they cannot reason with so 
much power as a grown-up person, but this is very 
different from their not being able to reason at all. 
We formerly gave you an example of how Compa- 
rison and Causality might be exercised in arithme- 
tical questions. But it may be done in very trifles. 
We have no doubt that some children at an infant 
school, could be made to comprehend the laws of 
the planetary motions, by some short lectures and 
experiments with their swing, and the laws of 
motion while playing- with marbles. Cause and 
effect are found every where, and, in children, Indi- 
viduality and Eventuality are seldom idle. There 
is something else, however, required besides the facts 
for inductive reasoning, and the capacities of the 
t children. A knowledge of the subject, of the con- 
stitution of human nature, and great tact, must be 
possessed by the teacher. As said before, no si- 
tuation requires so much in a teacher as an infant 
school. He must have the knowledge of a score of 
professors, and talents of the highest order, and 
they should be suitably remunerated, for their em- 
ployment is the most useful, we will say the most 
noble, of all professions. 



SPECIAL DIRECTION OF FACULTIES. 115 

There is nothing so hurtful as to tax Benevolence. 
This feeling- sets us agoing to institute schools and 
other charities, and most erroneously to rely on the 
voluntary support of the public. The truly bene- 
volent form but a small proportion of the commu- 
nity, and very often they are not found among those 
who have, or ought to have, something to spare for 
the gratification of this feeling. Those who have 
less Benevolence leave the whole burden on those 
who have most ; and thus the best institutions com- 
menced with enthusiasm are left to pine away. 
This is one among many reasons why the State 
should take up the cause of Education on the most 
extensive and most liberal scale. Indeed it is time 
for us to look about ; for Great Britain, once looked 
up to by the rest of the world, is lagging* far behind 
her neighbours in the matter of education. Gross 
injustice is often committed on the benevolent, who 
are frequently prevented from accomplishing their 
desires, and obliged sometimes to withdraw their 
bounty, and to refuse demands, by causes of a pri- 
vate nature, over which they have no control ; and, 
among others, by the duty of providing for their 
own. Yet we have known such persons cruelly de- 
famed, while others, who love to sound the trumpet, 
ostentatiously give their alms, and delight in seeing 
their names and deeds in newspapers and subscrip- 
tion lists. Nay, we have known instances in which 
the Christian injunction not to let the left hand 
know what the right hand doeth in the giving- of 
alms was obeyed, but defeated by those who en- 
forced publicly that injunction sending paragraphs 
to the newspapers. The benevolent alone should 



116 SPECIAL DIRECTION OF FACULTIES. 

not be taxed for what is the duty and the interest 
of all. 

To return. It is chiefly by exercising the reflec- 
tive powers that new ideas are acquired. But in- 
stead of furnishing a succession of new ideas to 
young- people, their time is wasted in learning to 
express the same ideas by different signs. Horse 
is as good a word as equus or hippos. Ass is 
shorter than asinus, and as expressive as onos. It 
is of little use to a child, when taking his food, to 
know that a spoon was once called kochliarion, or 
porridge jusculum. To learn such things does not 
cultivate the understanding, or impart knowledge. 
Modern languages are extremely useful, but the ac- 
quirement of dead ones should be regarded as mere 
accomplishment. It has been said the dead lan- 
guages are necessary for learned professions. They 
are so, only because in such professions there is 
monopoly. Physicians seldom think it necessary 
now to preserve mystery with patients in regard to 
the medicines they prescribe ; and examinations for 
degrees are not now carried on in Latin, at least in 
Edinburgh. If dead languages are to be taught in 
early life (which they ought not to be), they ought 
to be secondary to the acquirement of general know- 
ledge. Instruction in art and science, properly con- 
veyed, stimulates reflection, and excites desire to 
make farther discoveries. Children should be so 
conducted as that they may make discoveries, or 
seem to make them, themselves ; and this is at- 
tained' by conversational and practical education. 
How many human beings live and die, and know 
nothing of the air they breathe, the light that en- 



SPECIAL DIRECTION OF FACULTIES. 117 

ables them to see, or the heat that gives them 
warmth ? How many pass their lives knowing" no- 
thing- of the food they eat or drink, or of that where- 
with they are clothed ? Ignorance of common things 
pervades all classes, and chiefly the highest. It is 
owing to the ideas of legislators being confined by 
want of general knowledge, that improvement in 
the condition of States is retarded, and the liberty 
of the people abridged. We could scarcely hesitate 
to undertake to match perhaps more than half of 
our Representatives in Parliament, in their amount 
of positively useful knowledge, by an equal number 
of pupils selected from a well conducted infant 
school. We are not ashamed to say that, after visits 
to infant schools, we have been obliged on reach- 
ing home to apply to books ; and many good people 
have retired from an examination of babes, full of 
regret that, in their time, no such schools existed. 

Allow me to repeat, that each faculty has an in- 
clination to act in its own sphere ; but when it so 
acts, it acts blindly. Each faculty assists and go- 
verns another, and the directors that are intended 
by the Creator to keep all in a right direction are 
the moral and reflective faculties. Each or all may 
be abused, but education is intended to prevent this. 
Maxims, and rules, and precepts, are inadequate 
without practice. Each faculty must be exercised 
in its legitimate sphere of action. Bad example 
ought to be shunned. Yet it is too true that, while 
children have sobriety preached, they see the re- 
verse at home, all classes aiming at luxury and dis- 
play. Lessons are read in schools in which avarice 
and vanity are denounced ; yet, when they look 



118 MOTIVES OF ACTION. 

about them, they see all busy in making the most 
of others, and gratifying- vanity and selfishness. 
Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. 



MOTIVES OF ACTION. 

It is of importance in conducting' education, to 
consider from what source the motives for action 
proceed, for there can be no action without a motive. 
If certain faculties exist in man, as we have endea- 
voured to set before you, then it is obvious that each 
faculty has its own gratification as a motive for ex- 
citing action. This being the case, it is the more 
necessary that there should be certain faculties su- 
perior to others, in order to proper education. Each 
faculty is good in itself, and its abuse only is evil. 
But liability to abuse renders education and direc- 
tion necessary for the sake of society. Since the 
manifestations of the faculties are influenced by or- 
ganization, this most important fact puts much in 
our power for regulating society, which we did not 
before possess. It enables us to see the cause of 
improper and hurtful manifestations, and to guard 
against them. The great aim in regulating mo- 
tives, is to produce only such actions as are justified 
by the superior faculties, when these operate in full 
vigour. The motive which excites Acquisitiveness 
should be regulated by Benevolence, — the proper 
aim being, not only to please ourselves, but to as- 
sist others by a share of what we acquire. When 
we kill for food, there arc two faculties at work, one 
of which we did not before mention, — the desire for 



MOTIVES OF ACTION. 119 

food, and the propensity to kill. Benevolence again 
interferes, and bids us kill suddenly, and not to in- 
flict unnecessary pain. In the same way, Consci- 
entiousness interferes to prevent any other faculty 
gratifying- itself by doing injustice to others. When 
the superior sentiments act from their own mo- 
tives, they are highly gratified; and not less so 
when they are called upon to enforce the moral law 
upon the lower faculties. The law of Nature is 
the law or will of God, and none but He can alter it. 
Christ himself declared he came to fulfil it, not to 
destroy it ; and by his personal example exhibited 
how it ought to be fulfilled by others. It is not for 
us to inquire why is any thing as it is, but to dis- 
cover what is, and to act accordingly. Therefore, 
if we discover by inductive reasoning that man pos- 
sesses certain faculties, and that their manifestations 
depend on organization, we must hold this to be a 
part of the great law of Nature, and employ the dis- 
covery for the amelioration of our species. Some, 
indeed, maintain that man is by nature incapable 
of improvement, and yet, with great inconsistency, 
call upon him to mend his ways, and punish him if 
he does not. We are told in Scripture there are just 
persons that need no repentance, and that those ex- 
ist who are a law unto themselves. This, then, is 
sufficient authority for believing that man is capa- 
ble of being improved, so as to become more just, 
and to need less the penalties of the law. If man 
be not capable of improvement, for what purpose 
are so many efforts made in his behalf? When we 
know the sources or motives from which actions pro- 
ceed, a very great step to improvement is made. 



120 MOTIVES OF ACTION. 

The motives which proceed from the higher facul- 
ties are the religious, in respect to our relation 
to God ; and moral as respects our relations to 
our fellow-men. God having- created man, and 
adapted him to the laws of Nature, men differ in 
opinion embraced in the question — Did God make 
man to serve any purpose of his own, to gratify him- 
self, or for man's own sake, that he might confer 
happiness on his creatures ? It is obvious that God 
cannot stand in need of any thing- that man can be- 
stow, in order to augment his own happiness. It 
is equally obvious that nothing can be received more 
willingly by the Creator than obedience to the laws 
which he has established. Man feels that happi- 
ness is his being's end and aim, the end and aim 
of his nature. To understand that nature, must 
therefore greatly contribute to happiness, and un- 
derstanding it leads directly to the obedience of the 
laws of Nature, and this is agreeable to the Creator. 
Ignorance and perversity conceal his own nature 
from man, and prevent his listening to those who 
have been so fortunate as to discover it, and are 
willing to afford him this important means of at- 
taining the object that is the chief one of his life — 
happiness here and hereafter. Nay, he not only 
will not listen, but he reviles his greatest benefactors. 
Young people may soon be taught many of the 
laws of nature, and satisfied that they cannot be 
changed, and that, if they infringe them, they will 
suffer natural punishment. It is a law of nature 
that fire burns ; yet we could not do without it. It 
makes water to boil, and thus puts gigantic power 
into the hands of man; but such is the nature of 



MOTIVES OF ACTION. 121 

heat, that, if we touch boiling- water, we are scalded. 
If, therefore, we disobey a law of nature by thrust- 
ing- a hand into burning- fuel or into boiling- water, 
we are punished. Cautiousness is given to enable 
us to avoid accidental infringement of the laws, and 
the Knowing- Faculties to make us acquainted with 
them. When once we know these, it is invariably 
and necessarily our own fault if we suffer the pe- 
nalty of infringement. But while it has pleased 
the Creator that we shall thus necessarily suffer for 
every infringement of natural law, which is His 
own law, he has at the same time rendered these 
very laws subservient to our happiness, and there- 
fore obedience is as sure to bring- us satisfaction as 
disobedience punishment. Children may be taught 
this, and ought to be, because it will not only save 
them pain in acquiring knowledge for themselves, 
and excite caution along with curiosity, but lead to 
the contemplation and veneration of that inconcei- 
vable Power and Goodness, that has ordered all 
things for our good, under the easy condition of 
obedience. The proper use of the faculties, the con- 
trol of motives by the superior powers, is obedi- 
ence ; but it is easier to shew men the law, than to 
induce them to obey. It will be difficult to bring 
them to comprehend why the government of the fa- 
culties should tend to the general good of the human 
race, and to induce them to prefer that good to their 
individual gratification in listening to the solicita- 
tions of inferior feelings, and neglecting the warn- 
ings and advice of the superior sentiments. Which- 
ever of these last may be most powerful in any in- 
dividual whom we wish to call back from disobedi- 



122 MOTIVES OF ACTION. 

ence, and to look to the injury inflicted by his con- 
duct on society, let them be appealed to. If Conscien- 
tiousness and Benevolence prevail, stir up these 
to do the good work ; if Hope and Veneration pre- 
vail, let their motives be made use of; and if both 
the natural and revealed law can be used, it will go 
hard indeed if obedience cannot be secured. Such, 
however, is the present unfavourable state of the hu- 
man race, that we can live only to see the beginning 1 
of improvement. It is fitting that every thing should 
be done to reclaim the old, but the finest fruit will 
be obtained by cultivating the plant when young. 
If the superior motives will not reclaim, then let us 
have recourse to inferior ones, such as Love of Ap- 
probation, Acquisitiveness, reward and punishment, 
&c. But let these be the last resources. It should 
be kept in mind, that the same action may arise 
from different motives. One child may obey from 
fear, another from a desire of praise, a third from 
a prospect of gain, a fourth from a sense of duty. 
A teacher who knows human nature as taught by 
Phrenology, will be able to ascertain motives with 
great precision, and to correct them so as to satisfy 
children of the value of the highest motives. Nor 
should it be forgotten, that children do many things 
from mere imitation ; and there are occasions when 
this faculty may be very profitable in education. It 
is this, however, that renders good example so ne- 
cessary, and bad example so disastrous. Children's 
minds, when not trained, are easily led, unless their 
faculties be somewhat precocious, or determinate. 
They consider whatever others do, or extol, to be 
right ; and they act by imitation, whether what they 



MOTIVES OF ACTION - . 123 

see or hear be good or bad. It is most dangerous to 
exhibit conduct to children that is contrary to the 
precepts inculcated on them. If they are expected 
to be just, let them be treated with justice, and see 
others so treated. Nothing- unjust should ever be 
demanded of children, and they should be made to 
submit to every just demand and no resistance on 
their part yielded to. Unjust demands should never 
be persisted in. Children are able to perceive moral 
distinctions before they can reason. There is one 
thing- that may here be mentioned, which is a very 
common error, and one which, while intended for 
one thing, produces the reverse. Giving holidays 
by way of reward, clearly indicates that being in 
school is a punishment. To keep holidays makes 
children like them, because, when they come round, 
they are allowed to be idle. This is indeed the 
same kind of error, but not so gross a one, as making 
children learn portions of the Bible by way of pu- 
nishment. Both tend to make them dislike that 
to which we wish to attach them. Yet no error is 
so common, and betrays a sad want of reflection in 
teachers and managers of schools, while it shews, 
when once we are aware of it, how much ignorance 
of our own nature yet obtains in the world. The 
same folly is extended to religion ; and in some 
churches the saying of prayers a certain number of 
times is enjoined as penance. By what we have 
said, it must not be understood that human nature 
is believed yet to be in so improved a state, that, to 
produce good conduct, appeals even to the lowest 
motives are not necessary. Every one differs from 
another, and therefore different motives must be ex- 



124 MOTIVES OF ACTION. 

cited. But on every occasion let the highest motives 
be tried first, because many will be found to submit 
to them, while others will need to be stimulated 
by disagreeable things, such as a cautious excite- 
ment of keen hunger, or privations of various kinds, 
or a moderate and not a cruel use of the rod applied 
to the motive of fear. In order thoroughly to com- 
prehend the principle of motives of action, it is in- 
cumbent on teachers to study the nature of man, 
and parents will be all the better of applying them- 
selves to it. 

We have yet to consider that individuals of the 
human race differ from each other in natural en- 
dowment, and this in infinitely various propor- 
tions. This fact establishes the principle, as yet 
almost unknown, that education cannot be car- 
ried on by means of one motive. The aim of it is 
one, but the means of attaining it must necessarily 
vary with the different constitutions of those to be 
taught. Every one is not equally capable of im- 
provement, and those that are least so require the 
greatest attention and care. Some are so greatly 
endowed that they excel at once in whatever they 
turn their attention to. Others well endowed, but 
not so much, cannot reach excellence in more than 
a few things, and some in only one or two; and 
those there be who excel in nothing, but have only 
middling powers ; and so on we descend from the 
most brilliant genius to the idiot. Some characters 
are naturally moral, are a law unto themselves, and 
act from a sense of duty. Others, stamped by a re- 
ligious character, act from faith. When persons of 
different natural characters have certain faculties 



MOTIVES OF ACTION. 125 

so active as to produce a motive, Love of Approba- 
tion, for example, they will strive to make others 
like themselves, and to bring- them over to their 
own way of thinking-. This creates much disturb- 
ance in the world, and in religious matters gives 
rise to sects and sectarian spirit, and unchristian 
wrang-ling- about interpretations and forms. Edu- 
cation must be adapted to human nature, otherwise 
it will never improve it. No single motive, as al- 
ready observed, can succeed. All men cannot be 
made philosophers, though some may think it possi- 
ble. No one who understands human nature can 
expect that the motives which regulate his own 
conduct will regulate that of all others. Yet this 
is imagined by teachers of every kind ; and preach- 
ers sometimes wonder at their want of success, 
while it is entirely owing to their making their own 
feelings, as proportioned in themselves, the stand- 
ard for all others. Hence, while a sermon is de- 
livered, we see a few listening, others fldgetting, 
some taking snuff, and probably the majority seek- 
ing relief to their weary brains in devotion to Mor- 
pheus, He before whom the nature of man was 
open, took a different course. He applied to every 
motive, — excited every moral feeling, and did not 
confine himself to one or two. Let those who doubt 
this read the history of Jesus Christ. Preachers con- 
fine themselves to the inferior sentiments, — to Ac- 
quisitiveness, which desires reward, — to Cautious- 
ness, which dreads punishment. Time and know- 
ledge will rectify this, and bring about the percep- 
tion of the principle of motives ; and it should be 
remembered, the teacher of humility must not be 



126 MOTIVES OF ACTION. 

proud, nor he who inveighs against vanity be vain. 
He who says we should keep ourselves unspotted 
from the world, should not be a slave to the world's 
opinion, nor rest his happiness on its applause. As 
such contrarieties exist, the cause of their appear- 
ance is to be found in the ignorance that brings up 
young men to professions for which their predo- 
minant faculties unfit them. However powerful 
his understanding may be, he that is too large- 
ly endowed with Combativeness, Destructiveness, 
Acquisitiveness, and Self-Esteem, should not be 
brought up for the church. Those of weak under- 
standing are equally unfit. No man who is known 
to be capable of taking a bribe is made a judge, nor 
should any one with too much Cautiousness be made 
a general ; nor should any one who is fond of power, 
or too strongly attached to a party, be sent to the 
national council to represent free people. But while 
feelings are to be exercised that are adapted to a 
particular profession, the higher sentiments must 
predominate to render an individual useful and re- 
spected in the situation to which he may be called. 
A clergyman must have Veneration, and a soldier 
Combativeness ; but neither can be respected nor 
useful, if he be deficient in Benevolence and Justice. 
Without these intellect is of no avail. A mechanic 
may have less intellect, and a greater share of moral 
feeling, than a bishop or a philosopher ; but he is 
not a worse workman or member of society on that 
account, nor is the bishop or philosopher more re- 
spected for his deficiency. 

While the supremacy of the moral and religious 
feelings is admitted, it by no means follows that 



MOTIVES OF ACTION. 127 

the intellectual faculties are to be neglected. They 
have been given to us expressly to enable us to find 
out God in his works and make us wise. Some ne- 
glect, and even despise, intellectual acquirements. 
Such persons must be poorly endowed with intel- 
lectual power, or their feelings must be in a morbid 
state. Such are the persons who become hermits, 
and put away from them all temporal concerns. 
Many unhappy creatures, of all religions, seek the 
approbation of God by torturing themselves. Some 
are of opinion, from a morbid state of feeling and 
small endowment of intellect, that all knowledge 
of every kind is comprehended in the Bible. Schools 
are known where, if, in the course of reading, any 
thing is said of the natural history of the bear, the 
scholars are stopped, and made to turn up and 
read, from the book of Kings, that two she bears 
came out of a wood to devour the children who 
mocked Elisha. If a fox happens to be mentioned, 
or the nests of birds, they are told that every thing 
is in the Bible necessary to be known, and they are 
made to read, as a proof of this, that foxes have 
holes and the birds of the air have nests ; and every 
applicable passage is thus sought out, as if, by do- 
ing so, the credit of the Bible could be raised by its 
being considered as a treatise on natural history, in- 
stead of being looked upon in a more rational light. 
The intellect is necessary to regulate the feel- 
ings. Without it, Benevolence would exercise it- 
self on unworthy objects, and veneration on stocks 
and stones. Unreasonable hopes are certain of dis- 
appointment j and unenlightened justice is seldom 
seasoned by mercy. No judgment can be formed 



128 MOTIVES OF ACTION* 

without reflection, else it is probable it will be er- 
roneous. The intellect, in short, is essential to 
conduct. 

In cultivating- the intellect, every thing that is 
taught should be useful. Some persons are so weak 
as to imagine that, if a man be a good classical 
scholar, he is every thing. Being a scholar depends 
almost wholly on one faculty. Reflection is not 
necessary ; all that is needed is a talent for artifi- 
cial signs, so perfect, as to have a good memory, 
which gets ready-made rules by heart. With re- 
spect to the spirit and structure of language, it may 
be understood without dead languages. Classical 
scholars will give you the names of things in Greek 
and Latin, but may not be able to give you any in- 
formation in regard to their properties and quali- 
ties. A boy learning Latin once asked his father 
an unlucky question, Who made the Latin Lan- 
guage, and for what did he make it ? Another boy, 
with a feeble faculty of language, wished he had 
not been born, since he had to learn Latin. It has 
been remarked, that many sprightly boys, of ex- 
cellent capacities for useful knowledge, have been 
so disgusted with the dead languages, as to retreat 
from the drudgery of schools to low company, and 
have become bad members of society. We have 
seen this at a great English school ; and, not long 
since, we were in the company of some young men 
who had been at Eton and Westminster, whose 
conversation turned, with much apparent delight, 
wholly on the low blackguardism in which they 
had been engaged. At such schools the existence 
of any faculty in the human constitution, save that 



MOTIVES OF ACTION. 129 

of learning- Greek and Latin, seems to be wholly 
unknown, or, if known, to be wholly disregarded, 
as unworthy of cultivation. Yet from such semi- 
naries do our legislators and aristocracy issue. To 
consider mere scholarship as a test of genius is ri- 
diculous. It can only shew that a great scholar is 
endowed greatly with one faculty, which might 
have been more profitably employed on living* lan- 
guages. Whatever difference, then, may be in na- 
tural endowment, the efforts made to educate should - 
be the same, but most assiduous where there is a 
deficiency. This, however, is not attended to in 
schools. The best endowed are the favourites, and 
receive indulgences and rewards which would be 
more properly bestowed on those who, though with 
less success, exert themselves to the utmost of their 
power. This renders classification necessary, and 
those with weak powers should not be exercised 
along with those who are more clever. It is always 
more agreeable to children to keep pace with each 
other; and giving precedence to the clever Only 
puffs them up and renders them proud, while it 
despirits and renders unhappy those to whom at- 
tention should be chiefly directed. We do not say 
that it is possible to render, by education, a weak 
endowment equal to a strong one ; it is only affirmed 
that it may be greatly improved, beyond what it 
would turn out were education not employed. Be- 
sides, as good conduct is, and ought to be always, 
the chief aim, not only may weak powers be im- 
proved in reference to this object, but such as are 
too strong modified and directed. 

General should precede professional education ; 

i 



130 TEMPERAMENTS. 

and when the time comes for the latter, classifica- 
tion is again necessary. For it will be found that 
the tendencies of some are in one direction, and 
those of others in different ones. And after the di- 
vision according- to the object to be taught in re- 
ference to professions, young people must again 
be classed according to their ability. In general 
education, it is necessary to announce many facts 
without stopping to detail the processes by which 
they were discovered ; at the same time, when this 
can be done shortly, and in a manner suited to the 
capacities of the pupils, it should be done. And on 
all occasions it would be proper and very encourag- 
ing to the pupils, and a means of exciting their fa- 
culties, to ask them if they would like to know how 
such and such a thing was found out ; and the detail 
will rouse their own powers of observation, and 
greatly assist in displaying the different degrees of 
mental activity. For mental activity depends not 
more on the size of the brain than on its quality and 
state of health ; and that health is always affected 
by the general state of the body. That general 
state is designated by physiologists Temperament. 



TEMPERAMENTS. 

It is not necessary, in such a work as this, to 
convey a full notion of what is meant by Tempera- 
ment. Yet a brief account is proper, because every 
day's experience proves the correctness of the theory, 
and it is of very great importance in training the 
young. 



TEMPERAMENTS. 131 

The entire system of the body is made up of di- 
gestive organs ; of those which prepare and circu- 
late the blood ; and of those which contribute to 
keep mind and body in action, and which have the 
name Nervous System. There are some who have 
the digestive powers proportionally more fully de- 
veloped than the sanguineous or nervous systems ; 
some who have the sanguineous gTeatest ; and some 
in whom the nervous system predominates. The 
digestive process goes on in the abdominal viscera ; 
the sanguineous in the thorax or chest; and the 
nervous in the brain. 

When we observe a person with a large abdomen, 
and, proportionally, a small head and small chest, 
this person is said to have the Lymphatic Tempera- 
ment. All the parts of the body are plump and 
rounded ; the face pale and full ; and the expression 
of the eye heavy. There is a slowness in every 
movement, and an aversion to exercise and labour. 
The constitution is heavy and dull. A child with 
such a constitution cannot exert itself, even when 
willing, to nearly the same extent as others with a 
more favourable one. Yet we have seen such a one 
knocked about and flogged at school, and the little 
effect of such treatment rousing the ignorant master 
into fury. Common sense allowed its fair sway at 
once condemns such savage treatment, and dictates 
what it ought to be. Encouragement to exertion is 
the obvious means of improvement ; and though 
experience has not yet proved it, analogy leads us 
to hope that, by proper attention, such a tempera- 
ment, taken early, may be very much improved. 

When the chest is large, and the brain and abdo- 



132 TEMPERAMENTS. 

men small in proportion, we have the Sanguine 
Temperament. The complexion is florid, and the 
hair usually fair. In this there is much activity of 
body ; and the mind partakes of it even to restless- 
ness. The elaboration of the blood, in capacious 
lungs, is speedy and perfect, and its circulation is 
rapid and abundant ; and thus the system is greatly 
excited. Here we need repression more than en- 
couragement. There is both strength and activity, 
but these are chiefly devoted to muscular efforts, and 
less to mental effort ; and, at the same time, diges- 
tion will not be so rapidly performed. 

When the head is large, indicating" a large brain, 
and the chest and abdomen small, there will be 
little disposition to exert the limbs, and little mus- 
cular strength, and less perfect digestion. But 
there will be much power of mind, as well as acti- 
vity ; the nervous energy being proportional to the 
mass of nervous matter, and this energy becoming 
more conspicuous as the size of the chest and abdo- 
men are less. This state of things constitutes the 
Nervous Temperament. 

Persons who have what is called the Bilious 
Temperament, are distinguished by very marked 
contour of figure and face, having the indications of 
determination and resolution. There is much ener- 
gy. We have been disposed to regard this as a 
combination of the Sanguine and Nervous Tempe- 
raments. 

Though there certainly appears something in ge- 
neral bodily constitution that has a powerful effect 
on the amount of energy manifested both in mus- 
cular and intellectual effort, the theory of Tempe- 



TEMPERAMENTS. 133 

raments is not yet brought clearly out ; nevertheless 
it is sufficiently so to merit great attention. 

We see these temperaments to a certain extent in 
the lower creation. Among our domestic animals, 
we find the lymphatic temperament in those dis- 
posed to fatten — for example, in the New Leicester 
sheep ; and if farmers were acquainted with this 
matter, they would select animals with large abdo- 
mens and small chests and heads. The sanguine 
temperament we find in dogs, and especially in the 
greyhound, the form of which has been strikingly 
adapted by the Creator for extraordinary muscular 
effort ; and, accordingly, the chest is very large, and 
the abdomen very small. Beasts and birds of prey 
are distinguished by a combination of the sanguine 
and nervous temperaments. Indeed it is somewhat 
rare to see any one of them in great predominance, 
and they are commonly combined in various pro- 
portions. In some individuals they are so com- 
bined, that sometimes one, sometimes another, pre- 
dominates in its influence. We are sometimes sur- 
prised to see a large heavy-looking person active 
and making great exertions, and dancing lightly. 
Such persons will be found to have capacious chests 
and large heads, as well as a large abdomen and 
general plumpness. When the nervous and san- 
guineous systems are both energetic, and the abdo- 
minal moderate, there is apt to be too much acti- 
vity, and much risk to general health. The waste 
arising from over-exertion, needs a supply which 
feeble digestion cannot afford. The utmost care is 
therefore necessary to prevent undue waste from 
over-exertion. Parents fall into sad mistakes in 



134 TEMPERAMENTS. 

reference to this. A precocious child is exhibited 
and pushed forward, and its nervous energy de- 
stroyed ; bad health follows, and it is carried to an 
early grave. Children with large and active brains 
ought to be kept back until their nervous system 
has acquired its full growth and tone. Its preco- 
cious activity should be expended on employments 
and amusements that require little effort ; and there 
is no risk of its being left behind others, for as soon 
as the brain has acquired strength, its power and 
activity will soon place it foremost in the race. 

A knowledge of the temperaments, then, appears 
of importance to teachers, since they are found to 
modify mental as well as bodily activity ; which last 
is derived from the former. This should be at- 
tended to in the choice of a profession, and no young 
person should be encouraged to follow a profession 
for which his temperament may not suit him. Im- 
proper education may repress faculties that, if turned 
towards objects suited to them, might have enabled 
the possessor to excel. Some are made soldiers who 
would have graced a pulpit, and others there are, 
who might have beaten any other drum better than 
the drum-ecclesiastic. It is very natural for boys 
in a large class at school, while they are not saying 
lessons, to follow their natural bias, by drawing on 
the blank leaves of their books, or doing any thing 
which they can conceal from the master ; and if 
they are discovered they are punished for doing 
something rather than sit idle. Instead of resort- 
ing to punishment, the teacher should note down 
the fact, and either communicate with the parents, 
or employ the natural bias in a rational manner. 



TEMPERAMENTS. 135 

At present men are appointed to stations of trust 
and importance without the slightest attention be- 
ing- paid to their natural endowments and charac- 
ter, and the duties intrusted to them are but too 
often ill performed, or dishonestly undertaken. The 
Society of the Jesuits rose to possess extraordinary 
power and influence, chiefly from attending- to the 
natural talents of their pupils. They carefully noted 
the natural bias, and chose for admission into the 
order only those with acute understanding, and em- 
ployed them in matters which their natural disposi- 
tion enabled them to manage with dexterity. This 
society perceived what Phrenology afterwards de- 
monstrated, by discovering the cause of varied men- 
tal endowment. The purposes to which the Jesuits 
applied their knowledge of human nature are not to 
be commended, but their sagacity enabled them to 
wield a weapon of power unknown to the rest of the 
world. The society was destroyed and dispersed, 
but the facts by means of which it had flourished re- 
main the same; and though it be in the power of 
men to avail themselves of them for purposes tend- 
ing to promote human happiness, they are too much 
inclined to shut their eyes against truth. 

In professional education a vast deal of time is 
wasted ; and the cupidity of monopolizing profes- 
sors forces the student to expend his money and his 
time, and to weary his brain, for that which can 
be of no use to him, unless he happens to have a 
natural partiality to it. Every kind of knowledge 
is useful, but where a profession is to be followed, 
the acquirement of any branch not immediately con- 
nected with it ought not to be compulsory. Our 



136 TEMPERAMENTS. 

clergy are forced to attend certain classes in the 
universities, and a vast majority do no more than 
attend. The study of man whom they are to guide 
forms no part of their duty, while it should be a prin- 
cipal part of it ; all that is required being, that the 
student shall answer a few questions in the dead 
languages, expound a few texts in a way he knows 
will please, though contrary perhaps to his own 
sentiments, and he is turned out to seek patrons. 
When we are among professional men, we find 
them of every variety of mental constitution ; where- 
as all should have that portion of mind that is ne- 
cessary for their business in the greatest vigour, 
and the moral sentiments in full command. The 
profession of the law exercises powers in a direction 
too often in opposition to morality and religion. 
In conducting a lawsuit, deception, frand, and even 
direct falsehood are too much employee, to deceive 
judges and juries, and justice can seldom be said to 
triumph. We meet with similar anomalies in other 
professions, whether learned or mechanical. 

We have extended this summary perhaps too 
much, although the subject is far from being ex- 
hausted. From our desire to include as many im- 
portant truths as possible in a small space, there is 
an apparent want of connection, which you will 
excuse ; and also some meagreness of illustration. 
Our object has been more to excite farther inquiry, 
than fully to elucidate ; and you will be at no loss 
to find what you may desire in various works writ 
ten by eminent men. 



FR'NTFD BY NKItl. CV CO., OI,D FISFlMAttKET, EDINBrRQII. 



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